《Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead》


 Chapter 1: Witnessing A Miracle

    Hunched over a floating dark sphere, an old, decrepit fossil of a man remained with his mouth agape for a few seconds, incapable of reacting properly at first before breaking into madughter.


    A raspy, guttural scraping came from his dried-out throat, his meagre attempt at voicing his joy was cut short as he began coughing without stop, up until blood sshed down onto his emaciated arm.


    His broken record of a voice repeatedly bounced off the eroded walls surrounding him on all sides, escaping through cracks and slowly growing distant as his distorted words escaped the dungeon he had made into his own prison.


    Not only did he not know how to speak properly anymore, his life was nearing its end.


    But it didn¡¯t matter to him.


    This floating orb was the sum of his entire life, nearly one hundred and ten years, all for the sake of this one object.


    Turning around hurriedly, he clutched the sphere, cradling it like a child.


    His abrupt movement sent him to the dusty and cold hard ground, uncaring for the newly risen particles suffocating him. He dragged his sorry self through the pebbles, shards of ss, and many other objects he had hoarded and taken with him before secluding himself.


    The vestige of a man smiling toothlessly was reflected in the orb, uncaring for the abuse he was putting his decaying flesh through.


    He had long since forgotten what the point of the orb was, what it was supposed to aplish, why the fire of hatred within him was soothed by itspletion.


    Why he had even locked himself deep into a dungeon in the first ce, he only remembered the process he had borated.


    With madness fueling his muscles, he soon arrived before a huge hole in the ground, overflowing with cadavers, some whole, some reduced to mere dust, most in between those two states.


    There was no telling just how expansive the hole truly was underneath, how many people and creatures had been shoved into its darkness, left to rot away.


    Just above the pile of decay, a small bird cage was hanging on by a thread from the ceiling, its exterior rusty and suffering from the elements.


    Its exterior was illuminated by a bright light, but its true colour couldn¡¯t be perceived, was it red? Was it blue? Was it everchanging? Was it a colour that did not exist?


    The crumbling elder could not care less.


    There were many lights, in fact, the sheer mass of them pressed against one another unified them as one.


    Inside of this cage, the souls of the bodies beneath were trapped, both their spiritual and physical bodies had been gathered together, the souls carefully extracted so that both the minds and spirits remained perfectly linked to the soul.


    All of them were to be used as kindling for the orb to reach its true potential.


    Struggling to his knees, his bare body bruised from all the crawling, the living corpse the man had be took in the sight before him.


    The stench of death had since long numbed him, his eyes gued by cataracts, he smiled.


    Not one of his teeth remained in their ce, the gum supposed to anchor them had turned ck and unstable.


    With warm tears going down his cheeks, finding themselves in a maze of deep wrinkles, the old man raised the sphere as high as he could muster, readying himself for the penultimate moment of his awfully long life.


    Even without being able to remember a single reason why this was so important to him, he looked forward to what was going to happen.


    His long and filthy beard found itself within his vision, averting his gaze down, his moment interrupted as he wondered what could be happening.


    No breeze this potent could make its way in this deste room.


    It was no breeze, he felt nothing on his back, something was pulling everything in the room.


    Looking back at the pile and cage, he witnessed the mountain of dead bodies folding onto himself, the rotten and mummified flesh waspressed, the bones were ground into dust as everything converged into a single point.


    Everything in the room but the old man was sucked in, furniture, filth, dust, any piece of rock that wasn¡¯t properly stuck to the walls.


    The cage and orb were no exception.


    His most prized treasure was snatched as easily as candy from a baby©¤ powerless to do anything about it.


    The old man could only question what was happening.


    He hadn¡¯t done anything yet, this wasn¡¯t his doing, it wasn¡¯t his creation.


    The remains and souls fused with one another seamlessly.


    Theplete harmony mesmerised the sole witness before blinding him as thepressed mass exploded outward with a dark, purple light.


    A purple the old man couldn¡¯t fathom, a colour he could perceive, yet, knew he had never seen before and would never see again.


    When he regained his sight, something else now stood in the room with him.


    "Aah- AAAAH!" crying out shamefully, he tried to get up to his feet only to fail miserably, falling to the ground once more and forced to crawl like a maggot.


    He didn¡¯t dare look back again, consumed wholly by his fear, he moved with renewed vigour.


    Still, his poor attempt at escaping wouldn¡¯t have even gotten him away from a sloth.


    The sound of footsteps rang out like the tolls of a passing bell.


    Clicks resounded from the being that was slowly walking up to him.


    A loud ck shook the room, like a bear trap snapping into action.


    This sprung the elderly man to stop his useless attempt to flee and roll over on his back.


    Raising his arms defensively, he shouted iprehensible words at the creature, his intent unknown even to him.


    No one would have understood what he said, much less the being walking toward him.


    Seeing his doom only getting closer, showing no hesitation in its advance, the frail man swatted his arms randomly, most likely hoping to deter the monster.


    There was no sess to be found in his frantic action, the thing born from thousands of corpses and souls took a hold of his twig-like arms, snapping them with appropriate ease.


    His suffering didn¡¯tst long, the aggressor, not interested in making him wail, swiftly grabbed him by the neck and with a sudden motion, broke it.


    Death had already been inevitable for him, his actions had only brought it faster and made it that much more harsh.


    His executioner stared at its own reflection for a few moments, taking in its own appearance before dropping the lifeless husk down like the meaningless object that it had be.


    Still, to the monster, the old man had ascended to something superior.

 Chapter 2: No Time For You

    Letting go of the corpse, it fell limply on its back, the monster moved onto inspecting its own hands.


    They were skeletal, nearly nothing but bones, so was the rest of its body, it was a skeleton.


    Not only that, it wasn¡¯t a pristine white one, its body was discoloured and rotten bits of flesh seemed to be sprouting everywhere like parasitic mushrooms.


    For all intents and purposes, anyone would believe this undead to be the animated remains of a human, save for the long and pointy teeth that filled its jaws.


    Pinching one of the rotten bits, it oozed out with putrid blood, the vile liquid falling right on the old man¡¯s body.


    The undead stared at the spot it had just touched for a whole minute without moving in the slightest, it had grown back.


    Its arrival had made the roompletely silent and empty, moving over to the deep pit where the countless corpses had been kept, it looked down, seeing nothing but pure darkness.


    With unreadable intentions, it moved back and forth, dragging the old man by the wrist before lightly kicking him into the hole.


    Silence ensued once more as the undead remained in ce like a statue.


    Multiple minutes after, a loud ssh and p came from deep within the hole.


    As though it was all meaningless, the walking cadaver turned and headed toward the very same direction the old man had been trying to escape toward.


    Of course he would, the only door out of this room was there, it was a roughly built wooden door, made by an amateur of the craft, hastily assembled nails and nks.


    The frame and door weren¡¯t even fitting well, the skeleton stared at the door with his hollow sockets, not having a clue what a door was for a few seconds before trying to open it up normally, reaching for the handle and pulling it.


    One pull didn¡¯t do anything, the second neither and by the third, it was clear that the old man would have never made it out of here even with a severe head start.


    One could only wonder how he had even found his way inside of here.


    One could, but the undead didn¡¯t, instead opting to pry the nks off one by one with remarkable care.


    Peeking into this new room, the light flickered for an instant, the source of it unclear, there was simply light and no reason to bother questioning why.


    This one hadn¡¯t suffered from his entrance, and was thus, filled to the brim with its old owner¡¯s personal belongings.


    Papers, papyruses, stone tablets, a wide variety of objects and materials used to write down information were gathered here, spread out on tables haphazardly, manyying on the ground, others hanging from the ceiling or disyed on the walls.


    Most were damaged but even for those that were legible, the skeleton wouldn¡¯t be able to find a usage for them, for he couldn¡¯t read.


    Picking up one of the nks he had taken off the door, he moved on to the next room.


    The door swung open effortlessly this time, it was much smaller than the frame.


    Unlike the first two, which had been rtivelyrge but still nothing too grand, this one was simply gigantic.


    The ceiling was too high to be made out, the only proof of its existence being the pieces of debris that had fallen from it and smashed into the ground.


    The light source wasn¡¯t unknown this time around, the area was much dimmer, illuminated by differently coloured orbs simr to the one the old man had been clutching so longingly.


    Each of them were resting on stone pedestals, there were two rows of them, ten of them in each row.


    There used to be at least, a good portion of where pedestals had most likely stood had been destroyed by rubbles from the ceiling.


    All of those that remained had an orb sitting atop however, each sporting different shades.


    The undead walked in between the two rows, undisturbed as a rock the size of his skull fell right beside its position.


    All were shining a light but one shone much brighter, moving up to it, the skeleton inspected it, feeling something that shouldn¡¯t be from it.


    "Hello? Hey? What the hell is happening?" a youthful and confused voice rang out from the brilliant orb.


    "Anyone there? Seriously, am I in aa? Did I have a heart attack or something?" on and on, it seemed like the orb was speaking its thoughts aloud.


    What was most curious however, was that the undead was understanding the words being spoken, which was ludicrous on multiple levels.


    It didn¡¯t even have clear thoughts and had only gotten the rough grunts of the old man as words until now.


    Grabbing the orb with one hand, the undead lifted it up to its face, cking its jaws loudly.


    The physical touch startled the orb as it began to speak rapidly, shooting out sentences one after the other without end.


    "Oh!" suddenly, the rapid fire of words ceased as the voice eximed loudly.


    "Is that? Oh my god! It¡¯s like in those-"


    "Dear lord, why the hell is it so cluttered? It¡¯s like if someone never closed any of their tabs for a year straight¡­"


    The whole time, the skeleton had been calmly walking until it found itself back in the very first room.


    "Hold on, we are moving right? To where? Are you God? Or something like that?" the orb seemed to finally realise what was happening.


    Frankly, the soul contained within the orb had been quite confused at first, one second, the young man was eating heated noodles as the only meal of the day, and then, he was seemingly blind and unmoving.


    It had been so quick that he hadn¡¯t had time to let it sink in and now, strange things were appearing before him and someone had picked him up.


    "My reading experience tells me that this is a-"


    The skeleton dropped the orb into the hole.


    The light allowed the undead to get a better idea of what was down there, although it was still much too deep to see anything.


    There was definitely some water or liquid at the bottom, but it was hard to judge just how much.


    Now that that was done, it made the short trip back and shattered all of the other orbs, only keeping one intact to serve as a light.


    The only other way beside the one it had gotten in from was a simple corridor without any luminosity.

 Chapter 3: Meaningless Floating Screen

    The sound of bones rustling and grinding against stone softly reverberated throughout the long corridor, only sometimes apanied by the distant crash of a piece of rubble or something copsing.


    They came from both sides of the stone hallway, but not only, noises also came from beyond the walls, from below and above.


    There was no telling just howrge this ce was, all that was certain was that it was in a slow process of decay.


    Which was strange, nothing seemed to be the cause of it, the dungeon may be old and unattended, but it didn¡¯t appear fragile in the least, the rock wasn¡¯t falling to dust, it was still strong andpact.


    The only signs of damage were due to the illogical source of the destruction too, something else was at y here, but the undead had no way of knowing what it was.


    It couldn¡¯t speak, it couldn¡¯t read, it wouldn¡¯t have been able to get an answer out of either of the two persons it had met even if the skeleton had wanted.


    Instead, the creature of bizarre origins simply kept on walking without any reaction to what was going on, whether or not it was even thinking or realising any of this, there was simply no way to tell.


    After dozens of minutes of walking at a slow pace, the monster arrived in a fourth room, this one, was thest.


    There wasn¡¯t any way out of here.


    The same four grey walls were all that greeted him, everything was empty save for the usual rubbles.


    The old man had to have gone in there somehow, there was no proof of it however, by all means, the elder had just popped in there.


    Running its bony fingers along the walls, producing a sickly melody, the corpse suddenly stopped, the confused words of the youthful-sounding core reminded it of the things it had been seeing as well.


    Most notably, when it had killed the old man and the orb, which had all seemingly been alive, otherwise there would have been no reason to destroy them as well.


    Thinking about this, the skeleton smashed the remaining orb to pieces, not only had it fulfilled its purpose already, the undead didn¡¯t find much difficulty in navigating the dark anyways.


    Also, it helped to bring up that t, bright but not luminous thing in its vision again.


    The rotten skeleton couldn¡¯t read, yet, he was able to understand what was written on there for some reason.


    *yed an unwanted presence*


    It tried to touch it, to no effect, phasing right through the thing, even when waving through it and covering its hollow sockets, the undead could still make out the information conveyed on the dark purple surface.


    It was something curious, but it didn¡¯tpletely fit the description the orb had made.


    The apparition soon went away on its own.


    Perhaps the skeleton needed to do something to bring it up, what could this something be though?


    The undead hadn¡¯t been having any sort of thoughts at first, when it had killed the old man and dropped the orb to its death, there had been nothing going on up there.


    A few moments ago however, it had remembered a past action and wondered about it, in fact, it had somehow understood what the orb had said.


    Not ruminating on that, the undead thought about bringing the luminous surface, it worked but it was just the same thing as before, trying again, it just kept on bringing up the words telling about what had been killed.


    Not trying anything for a few dozens of seconds, the skeleton then tried to bring up something again, this time, not thinking about what it had seen before.


    Wanting to see what the orb had spoken of.


    And once it did appear before itself, it understood what the orb had been talking about.


    The sheer amount of information present on there appeared endless at a nce, everything was neatly separated but it didn¡¯t change the fact that one needed to crank their necks up and down to look at some of what was disyed.


    Ignoring much of the information since most of it was empty, the undead focused on what was actually filled in.


    *Species: Putridum Ossa*


    *Title: First Of A Kind*


    It was all that truly mattered at the moment, no need to pay attention to what was empty or was followed by a zero, especially when information about the whole thing was already entering its mind without being asked for.


    The first thing was good to know, but was, ultimately, of little importance.


    The second one however, if what he was in the process of spontaneously learning was to be trusted, mattered a bit more.


    Focusing a bit more on the ¡¯title¡¯ section of this maze of words, which was apparently called ¡¯system¡¯, at least it was just a single word.


    Not that pronunciation was something bothersome for a mute corpse.


    *You are the first one of your kind, and you¡¯ll be the only one, thus deserving of a name*


    The logic didn¡¯t seem sound but the undead¡¯s gaze was attracted to a previously nk portion of the purple surface.


    It stood right at the top of it, implying that it was an important facet of the skeleton.


    It now read something, it was the skeleton¡¯s name, no longer a simple monster.


    And with it, came the very first true thoughts of the undead.


    ¡¯Loimos¡¯


    Perhaps it should have been more grandiose of a moment, maybe he should have felt something about it.


    Loimos was already dead however, there was no emotion to be had, there was only one thing.


    There being nothing of use in here, he moved through the ambient darkness enveloping the hallway, still unbothered by the progressive copse of his surroundings, the skeleton found himself back to the room filled with papers and parchments.


    He still couldn¡¯t read them despite suddenly being capable ofprehending words and somehow being able to think.


    He couldn¡¯t read them, but he could still find a use for all of this mess.

 Chapter 4: Kin

    The skeleton, Loimos, had no way of carrying much things on his person, there were no bags and articles of clothing that could be used or fashioned to fulfil such a purpose.


    So, there was only one thing to do with every single object within his reach.


    The same treatment he had given the remains of the old man and the orb was granted to these lifeless constructs, although they had once been part of something that was alive, for the most part.


    The few tables ricocheted and bounced along the edges of the deep pit, a few times before being clearly broken to pieces, whatever splinters and parts came out of this went on to join what had been thrown down before them.


    What the undead was going to do after didn¡¯t allow for him to even take a single thing in his hands or in between his terrifyingly pointy fangs, he had tried to keep something like a nk stuck in his ribcage but so little sess.


    His bones weren¡¯t smooth by any means, but the outgrowths of rotten flesh constantly oozed with putrefied blood, meaning that anything that wasn¡¯t tightly jammed in between his ribs would slip out.


    This applied to everything he had tried.


    As such, once he was down with emptying the rooms of everything that could be moved, meaning everything for the undead didn¡¯t care for passing time or the continued crumbling around him, so he went and even spent the time to move the heavier furniture and disassemble part of the walls.


    Nothing could tire him, so he never stopped for even a second.


    He began to climb down without hesitation, he had no real idea how to do this but it wasn¡¯t difficult to figure out, the sides of the chasm weren¡¯t t, much different from the walls of the rooms, which were made from grey, stone bricks.


    Everything was rough and uneven, gaps here and there, rocks sticking out, finding ces that he could keep stable footing and hold on was a task anyone could have done.


    Granted, people of flesh and bones wouldn¡¯t be quite able to use the slimmer spots he was shoving his bones in, neither would they be calm.


    It didn¡¯t bother him in the least, but some time ago, the mysterious lights illuminating some of the rooms had disappeared, so everything was pitch ck whilst he was doing this.


    A living would be tense and most likely shaking, only further heightening their chances of losing their grip and falling to their deaths.


    No such problem for Loimos, he quickly made his way further and further down, until he reached what appeared to be a cave, he hadn¡¯t arrived at the bottom, not by a longshot.


    His bones grinding against the hard rocks, he put both of his feet down into this cave at once, faced with pure darkness still.


    The ceiling was high enough for him to not scrape the top of his skull against it, though the width of the tunnel didn¡¯t allow him to spread his arms in their entirety.


    He could hear the sound of footstepsing from deeper within.


    Multiple sets of them moving about, seemingly randomly, though it was too soon to make such an assumption, some were familiar, others weren¡¯t.


    He moved forward after only a short instant of listening, his steps slow and as discreet as possible, if there was something to kill, getting the jump on them would allow him to do it so quicker.


    Crouching down, walking on all four like a beast on the prowl, he followed the wall to his right, softly touching it once in while to make sure he wasn¡¯t deviating.


    His jaw opened bit by bit, ready to close shut at any given time.


    By all means, Loimos was still weak, moving simple furniture around had taken him quite some time, him easily breaking the old man was more revealing of the elder¡¯s frailty than of the undead¡¯s strong grip.


    Though, he could tell with certainty that his jaw packed much more powerpared to the rest of his structure, the ¡¯ck¡¯ sound it emitted when suddenly shut was loud and threatening, it could easily be mistaken for a bear trap.


    Not that Loimos knew what a bear trap was, or what a bear was for that matter.


    cing his bony hand against the wall again, he could feel a curvature, moving along, he was greeted with a wide room, much reminiscent of the ones he had seen up above.


    Antern was dangling from the ceiling, fastened to it with a chain.


    It glowed with faint, dark blue light, the corners of the room remained shrouded in dark but the rest was decently lit for the skeleton to see who were the owners of the footsteps.


    Sealing his jaw without a ck, he walked into the room.


    His assumption had been right, the locals were indeedpletely aimless, walking in random directions.


    Some of them were even walking into walls, bumping into random furniture or tripping on rocks.


    It didn¡¯t bother them in the least.


    It all changed when Loimos entered the room, they all stopped and turned to stare at him, only for a few seconds before resuming their mindless activities.


    They were all undead like him, skeleton and zombies.


    Lacking his astute intelligence however.


    They seemed ancient, the zombies seemed all dried up, their integrity preserved by the environment.


    The skeletons, allcking any rotten flesh, had turnedpletely grey, their hollow sockets filled with dust, it seemed like any sort of damage would cause them to fall apart, like a strong breeze would disperse them.


    They had existed for too long without reaping life.


    Seeing them, Loimos spontaneously understood why they were in this state, as though the information had always been within him, waiting to be unlocked.


    ¡¯They have not acquired experience from killing or absorbed more death force, they are too weak as a base to maintain their form, so, they have continued to follow their dposition like a corpse would¡¯


    Undeads couldn¡¯t really be destroyed without outside interference, they always produced death force on their own, though, even if what Loimos had just thought was perfectly urate, the degradation would eventually stop, or they would be an entirely different sort of undead.


    There was no need to help them gather more death force, they weren¡¯t in need of sustenance like the living did.


    Undeads existed at all stages of dposition, still, they were all undeads, everyone in this room wouldn¡¯t hesitate to rush down the first thing with a pulse that appeared before them.


    It was his and their purpose to do so.


    However, just like him, they were too weak to even develop the basic skill and ability set of an undead, rendering them unable to do anything but walk in circles, unable to track and detect life.


    To change this, they would just need to find things to kill.

 Chapter 5: Unacceptable

    It was easier said than done however, there was a reason why all of these undeads were stuck wandering aimlessly here.


    The room, which wasn¡¯t crumbling down like the rest but still bore marks of the ages had four ways leading out of it, one led to the pit Loimos hade from, two others led to dead ends blocked off by a strange, flesh-like growth.


    It wasn¡¯t part of some being, he would have been able to tell whether it was of the living or undead, it just happened to look like meat.


    Thest way, the one facing Loimos as he entered the room wasn¡¯t a dead end per se, it simply required one to scale a wall, something that was beyond the feeble preserved corpses.


    It was easier for him to aplish but not quite as simple as his earlier feat, this wall was also partly covered in the flesh-like substance, resulting in his first few tries to end in utter failure.


    Quickly facing the fact that the outgrowth was too slippery for him to climb no matter what he tried, he focused his time on biting and scraping it off the rock instead.


    His careful work slowed down by the fact that this thing seemed to refuse to be removed from the territory it had grown over.


    This work, which would have typically been considered arduous and downright inhumane, was the sort of thing a court woulde up with to punish an especially terrible criminal, or the sort of punishments inflicted upon characters of mythology.


    For an undead, it was nothing.


    The parts that were peeled off the rest quickly withered and died off, falling apart like burnt paper.


    Apanied by the sounds of his fellow undead prowling around behind his back and of the more distant than ever falling debris, he eventually managed to outspeed the outgrowth and render it nonexistent.


    ¡¯Clearing the other passageways should also be possible, if it did not grow over the walls as well¡¯


    First, he made his way up the wall and crouched down close to the edge, he didn¡¯t have much room up there, the tform onlyrge enough to fit his feet, his skull close to the ceiling.


    Looking down, the poor lightinging from the room behind was of no use right now, thankfully, down into the pit, another light wasing from around a corner.


    It was bright and powerful, a shine unlike any other Loimos had gotten to witness before.


    The light seemed somewhat distorted, not certain what was causing this, the undead brushed off some pebbles and dust off into the pit.


    Resulting in a few low sshes to ring out, Loimos realised that he was faced with water.


    Carefully climbing down, he entered the cold water, making certain that he would be able to go back up, he began to walk toward the light.


    Unable to swim or gain any sort of traction underwater, it was all he could do.


    The light couldn¡¯t blind him, but the water was still dark and obstructing his vision, as he walked, he kept on moving lower and lower.


    Until he reached the bottom of a body of water, its true size unknown.


    Since he could easily go the other way at any moment, Loimos walked at the bottom of the water, causing dirt and sand to rise up with his steps, he looked around for any sort of wildlife but everything was empty.


    No fishes, no amphibians, nothing, not even some dreadful monster of the dead, or if there was, it wasn¡¯t willing to move for an unappetising pile of bones that was most certainly capable of sending even strict scavengers straight to their graves for attempting to sate themselves.


    The rotten spots on his bones ejected the viscous rotten blood from time to time, tainting the waters around him.


    The liquid was so vile and heavy that it sank directly to the ground.


    Walking in a perfectly straight line in spite of the utterck ofndmarks around to guide him, he eventually began to rise up again, the soil beneath his feet turning into sand only.


    The water was so opaque, that even when he was barely a millimeter away from breaking to the surface, he couldn¡¯t see anything outside.


    As such, he carefully stuck his skull out until just the the top of his eye sockets was outside, it was well enough for him to make out what sort ofnd he was walking toward.


    It was a minuscule batch of sand with only a singr tree on it, the sole vegetation was grand and ridiculously sizedpared to the surroundings, adorned with some sort of fruit Loimos couldn¡¯t identify.


    Seemed like the random bits of knowledge that were popping up in his mind didn¡¯t cover this sort of thing.


    It was green and round, seemingly around the same size as his skull.


    He diverted his attention elsewhere once he confirmed that nothing necessitated his attention on the ind.


    Heeding closer inspection to everything else, it was clear that he had found much of what he had been searching for.


    Further away from the ind, much further, the body of water, which he would ssify as argeke, vast expanses of greenery stretched further than he could see, basically, all directions, save for the one he hade from, were filled with thriving life.


    Insects were buzzing around, pollinating flowers, birds chirped happily, small animals that one wouldn¡¯t be able to imagine themselves petting, preys, predators lived in the perfect harmony that was the cycle of life.


    It seemed that closer to the shores, the waters were also vibrant with action.


    Everywhere he looked, he was faced with different wonders life coulde with, varieties of flora and fauna, the sun up above casting its nourishing light upon them all.


    Of course, everything was still underground, the walls of the dungeon behind Loimos confirmed that while seemingly unrted, he was still deep within the earth.


    The sun wasn¡¯t real, or maybe it was, the undead had no way of truly telling whether this sort of thing was possible or not.


    He hadn¡¯t even known the sun was a thing until a few seconds ago when he looked up.


    Lastly, popting the beautiful areas were various sorts of monsters as well, some more intelligent than others.


    Monsters and animals were very distinct categories, even if the line could get beyond blurry.


    Loimos himself was technically a monster after all and yet, things that were truly just big wolves were monsters as well.


    Seeing the refined cycle all around him and the achievements achieved by the more aware of monsters, he felt nothing of course.


    One thing was certain however, all of this wouldn¡¯t fly in his presence.

 Chapter 6: Still

    The undead retreated under water, leaving only a dark spot where he had stood.


    He wasn¡¯t a rabid beast, he could bid his time ande backter, before making any decision on his next course of action, he would try and clear the other two ways of their fake flesh growths.


    He seemed to be walking a little bit faster now, or rather, the weightlessness he felt in water wasn¡¯t quite as pronounced as when he had first stepped into it.


    Arriving back amidst his fellow undeads just a little bit faster thanks to this, he instantly went to work, this task too appeared to be going smoother than before.


    Whilst fighting the ever growing flesh, he brought up the purple panel, feeling like it might have something to do with the sudden improvements.


    Certainly enough, a previously empty spot now had a few things written in it.


    The skill section had multiple sub-parts but for now, only the first, nameless one was filled.


    Considering what Loimos had noticed improvements on, the skills he saw made perfect sense, there were even a few skills he had obtained but hadn¡¯t noticed anything when partaking in the rted activity.


    Climbing, moving underwater, ripping apart and sneaking around to mention the most prominent ones.


    Even though the other two ways were obstructed by much more of the fleshy substances, doing it for long enough would guarantee that he would eventually reach his goal.


    The distant falling of debris now seemed much less frequent, the sound of the zombies and skeletons were inadvertently making seemed much more prominent as well.


    Just as he was about to begin with one of the two paths, the undeads all stopped dead in their tracks, as though a switch had just been flipped, they all moved directly toward the Loimos, or rather, toward the wall he was facing.


    Instantly, they put their weak bodies to work and began to tear the false flesh apart, wing and biting at it.


    With their assistance, the entirety of the path was cleared in little time, at least, little time for a bunch of undeads without clocks.


    Moving some rocks, the faint lighting of the room allowed them to see what was hidden behind, this path got smaller and smaller, ending with a dead end.


    Resting against the wall of this dead end, was another undead, which rose to its feet the instant it realised a way out had opened.


    Unlike Loimos and the rest, which could seem to all being from human remains or something of simr build, this one was muchrger, nearly two meters tall with thick bones.


    Pieces of petrified muscles and bits of dry skin still stuck to it in certain ces, its skull had a distinct shape, somewhat elongated toward the back.


    Its lower jaw wasn¡¯t holding on as it should anymore, hanging loosely.


    Still,pared to the rest of the undeads, it didn¡¯t seem nearly as frail, it must have had quite the hefty kill count to be brimming with so much death force or had remained in a ce full of death for a while.


    In the intelligence department, it was tied with the rest however.


    It appeared to be realising that some life was nearby but unable to pinpoint the location, so instead of going after that, it followed Loimos and the rest as they went to deal with the other way.


    He didn¡¯t know why they had all suddenly began to follow him around, he hadn¡¯t gained anything that could have such an effect.


    With the big guy¡¯s help, everything was much swifter, the sheer width of its hands made it more efficient than all of thembined, not to mention how easily it was ripping the flesh-like construct.


    This way didn¡¯t lead them to another ally, but to a long, very long passageway which ended with a sturdy, stone door.


    Even theirbined efforts couldn¡¯t budge it in the least.


    There was nothing that could be done.


    It was time for Loimos to pay a visit to the other side.


    _________________________


    The sun never truly set here, it simply glowed less strongly until one could barely see a few meters in front of them.


    Despite the dark, one of the green-skinned inhabitants of a small tribe of little monsters wasn¡¯t afraid to venture out, he had been around for three years already, he was all grown up now and knew that there was nothing dangerous around.


    It would be a different story were he not heading for theke, but he wasn¡¯t an idiot, he knew where hairless wolves lived, they didn¡¯t go down to this part of the river anymore ever since the chieftain had hunted them into near oblivion.


    He also knew that the wolves despised the taste of goblin meat with a passion and would only even think of biting them if they stepped too far into their territories.


    He wasn¡¯t stupid, so he was perfectly safe, all of the tribes had friendly or at worst, neutral rtionships, there were no dangerous monsters living in the water too.


    Going to get some buckets of water was no big deal, when the others woke up and noticed that he had gotten all of the water needed for the day by himself, he would be praised and perhaps, he would even be able tond Irgob¡¯s affection!


    ¡¯Yes, that is a wless n, all thedies love a hardworking man¡¯ he thought with a satisfied smile on his face.


    Not only that, but he was only second in strength to the chieftain himself, he could carry buckets filled and water back and forth without any issue.


    A good personality and the body of a war god? He was simply irresistible, one could only wonder how he had yet to find a mate.


    He arrived on the shore, there was no sand on this part, only humid grass, which had been ttened by the repeated passages of various goblins doing the same thing as him over the years.


    It was a surprise grass even persisted to grow here.


    He could see the reflection of the dim sun up above, making for a beautiful sight.


    ¡¯I should take her here during the night, I am sure she¡¯ll love it¡¯ smiling by himself as he got lost in reveries, he shook his head and prepared for the first filling of the buckets.


    Something moved in the water.


    "Mmh? Someone here?" he spoke aloud, he could have just assumed it was a fish or something, but for some reason, he instantly believed that it was someone else.


    Maybe the way it sounded reminded him of when he went for a swim himself, or perhaps he unconsciously caught a sight of a figure standing upright.


    The night was dark but not the darkest it could get, with the water reflecting some of the light, he felt confident that someone wouldn¡¯t be able to hide very well in theke.


    "Need some help?"


    "No?" he grew a bit scared, his mind running wild with multiple possibilities, mostpletely improbable.


    He backed off from the edges of the water, grasping both of the buckets with only one hand, he pulled out a knife made of stone from the beast pelt tied around his waist.


    "You better not be trying to be funny, I¡¯ll seriously stab you!" he warned in the dead of night, it would be a shame if some joke ended in bloodshed.


    Puffing his chest and standing as tall as he could, he knew that if something was lurking around, appearing stronger than you did could dissuade it.


    He hadn¡¯t gotten the pelt he was wearing by sitting back andzing around.


    ¡¯Huh? What¡¯s this?¡¯ his gazending on something in the water.


    It had been standing there for gods know how long, it had been remaining so still that it had merged into the surroundings perfectly.


    With the lighting from behind it, he couldn¡¯t tell for sure what it was, but the fact that streaks of light could somehow pass through its body freaked him out beyondprehension.


    Raising his arms aggressively, he slowly backed off, not wanting any sort of business with whatever this thing was.


    It remained perfectly still nheless.

 Chapter 7: Lying In Ambush

    The stillness stayed so for what appeared to be multiple minutes to the goblin, but really was nothing more than ten seconds.


    He really didn¡¯t want to turn his back to this thing, but he wasn¡¯t feeling like backing off without having any idea what was behind him either.


    The one in front of him may be a decoy for all he knew! All of this could be an borate trap!


    Flexing his muscles, a vein popped out on his bald head as he dered his identity:


    "I am Stolgob! Second strongest of my tribe! You think you can take me?!" he wasn¡¯t bluffing, he had stopped a charging deer with his bare hands just the other day, his body wasn¡¯t thin and his belly wasn¡¯t chubby like the typical goblin.


    He would knock the first fool who thought so on his ass with a single punch.


    Still, no response of any sort came from the mysterious being in front of him.


    Stolgob couldn¡¯t even tell if that thing was looking at him or not, he could only hope that he hadn¡¯t been trying to intimidate a nt with a funny shape.


    ¡¯I¡¯ll just run away ande back another time¡­¡¯ the goblin had already decided on what he would do, he could always impress Irgob another time.


    "ck!" a loud snap split the silence, startling the goblin to jump up for an instant as the sound of water being troubled followed immediately after.


    When the creature had finished crawling out of the water, he was already long gone, having sprinted away at full speed right through the underbrush.


    ¡¯Pity¡¯ Loimos thought tly, as he gazed in the direction the green man had run toward.


    He had already lost his chance the second the goblin had backed away from the shore, everything after that was just to test him.


    ¡¯Stolgob, tribe, second¡¯ listing off a few things he had learned about the buff little goblin.


    It seemed obvious to the skeleton that he wouldn¡¯t win in a frontal confrontation, the smaller monster was clearly experienced and fairly powerful, at least byparison to himself.


    The original n had failed superbly but it didn¡¯t matter much, he had seen the goblin holding onto buckets, they came to get water from here, he would have many more asions to get a hold onto one of them.


    He went back into the water and submerged himself, lowering his body down but remaining right up the shore.


    The soil here was soft and somewhat muddy, using his fingers to dig into the side of the shore, he buried himself under a thinyer of dirt.


    Completely concealed, he went immobile, thanks to the filth covering his bones, the rotten blood he regrly expelled was prevented from staining the water in any visible way.


    The water of theke was incredibly opaque to begin with, no matter whether it was inside or outside, seeing anything through it was a tall order.


    Despite not being able to see, he still had advantages over the living when submerged.


    Which were that his other senses weren¡¯t impaired in the least, he could hear clearly what was going on outside and inside the water.


    Unlike the majority of undeads, he also had ess to the five, most basic senses.


    He could smell, taste, touch as well, if not better than a living made of flesh and nerves.


    He remained unmoving throughout multiple cycles of day and night, dozens of days went by without the undead growing bored or impatient, for he was incapable and unable of such things.


    He listened to the goblins¡¯s conversations as they went to gather water, sometimes to simply discuss, to go for a swim or other sorts of extracurricr activities.


    Loimos didn¡¯t act, even though he had multiple asions to, he extended his senses to their maximum and remained perfectly hidden, stalking the goblins, animals and other monsters that sometimes came by.


    He learned their names, how they behaved, what was thetest topic of discussions in their tribes.


    There were a few names that were more recurrent than others however, Stolgob, Irgob, Pokzgob and Gobstroz.


    Respectively: The best hunter, the prettiest of the tribe, the designated wise one and the chieftain.


    Their subject of conversations were rather limited, but perhaps it was that Loimos only got to hear of their small talk, they could simply be having the most important talks within the confines of the tribe.


    He developed his understanding of each of the goblins, his stealth and senses all at once amongst other things.


    After weeks had passed, if not months.


    Loimos moved again, he had learned enough and since it seemed that those ¡¯skill¡¯ things were getting much slower to progress after a while, he decided to start working on culling the living.


    He had moved because an easy prey had shown itself, the goblin was alone.


    This one was frailer than the rest, aged and without anything notable about him.


    His name would no longer matter, he stuck his hand into the water right above Loimos.


    He didn¡¯t act in that instant, he knew his routine, the old goblin would check the water temperature, a useless act considering that it never truly changed significantly.


    After confirming that it was eptably warm, he would sit down and let his feet sink into the water.


    A minute or so would pass, and he would begin to throw small rocks and pebbles at theke, watching the wildlife that would sometimes emerge.


    Unlike Stolgob, he was weak.


    The instant Loimos deemed the goblin was immersed in his activity enough, he rose from the soil and shut his jaw on his feeble ankle.


    Not hard enough to damage it too severely, only enough force to sink his fangs down to the bone.


    Before the green monster could realise that he had been attacked, Loimos dragged him into theke, forcing him away from the shore and deeper.


    He exhausted himself quickly, his struggle grew lethargic as water filled his lungs, he had missed his asion to shout for help.


    The undead went away with his new prize, pulling the dead body along toward the room with his fellows.

 Chapter 8: Something In The Woods

    "Chieftain?" a meek-sounding voice, polluted by the not-so-developed vocal cords of goblins spoke out as its owner stood right in front of arge and cosy tent, yet, it remained primitive in its construction.


    A rough ¡¯Mmph¡¯ was the only answer this goblin got, prompting him to carefully push the tent door and make his way inside whilst keeping his head low.


    The goblin stayed in ce, fidgeting in ce as he didn¡¯t want to start speaking without authorisation.


    "What¡¯s the matter? Say whatever is on your mind" the chieftain coughed a few times.


    "Hum, boss¡­ The old Gobert has gone missing and Stolgob thinks it¡¯s the thing he saw a few months ago that is responsible¡­" the goblin exined tentatively.


    "Huh? That old guy?" the chieftain stood up from his seat as he waved his hand through the air.


    The younger goblin finally looked up at him, seeing him pushing away the smoke umted around him from smoking random herbs from a worn-out wooden pipe.


    Seeing smokeing his way, the goblin reflexively held his breath as the chieftain stroked his long, grey beard thoughtfully.


    "Gone, just like that? That¡¯s weird, he was our sharpest tool in the shed too, no one knows how to put up a tent and fires like him" the chieftain of this tribe rambled for a bit before taking a puff from his pipe.


    He was known as Gobstroz, the fact that the ¡¯Gob¡¯ in his name was at the start rather than the end indicated that he was from an older generation.


    Much taller and generallyrger than the rest by a wide margin, some clueless adventurers might think of him as a hobgoblin but the truth was that he was just built different.


    Evacuating the smoke out from his nostrils, he dropped the pipe and crossed his arms.


    "If Stolgob is so insistent about the thing he saw, it must be that Gobert went missing when going to theke, right?"


    "Yes" after holding his breath for too long, the goblin took in a deep breath and began to choke on all of the smoke.


    "Ahaha! Don¡¯t die on me and listen:" Gobstroz smacked the smaller goblin¡¯s back.


    "We¡¯ll keep an eye open in case the old fart decided that ying jokes was his thing now, but more importantly, no one is allowed to go to theke alone, groups of two minimum, understood?"


    "Yes chieftain!" putting himself together again, the goblin stood at attention.


    "Tell them that if they don¡¯t listen, I¡¯ll have Pokzgob give them an early taste of what being buried feels like" Gobstrozughed at his own words, he wouldn¡¯t actually do that, though the younger goblin was convinced he was dead serious.


    "I¡¯ll be on my way!" quickly escaping the scene, the goblin heaved a sigh of relief, cursing his bad luck for losing the game and forcing him to be the one to speak with the chieftain.


    ¡¯You better be actually dead Gobert¡¯ he gritted his teeth and went on to announce the chieftain¡¯s words to the rest of the tribe.


    He didn¡¯t delegate the duty, he took pride in being ordered by the grey-bearded goblin in person.


    Contrary to what one might expect from an unadvanced bunch like them, the tribe was actually quite expansive, spanning over arge area, at least for goblins with their short legs.


    As such, it took him a long while to get a hold of at least one member of each family or group.


    He first went to the most important members, the designated hunters, the builders and such, as well as Stolgob, the best hunter and second strongest of the tribe, the goblin found it quite inspiring for another of his kind, which was the same age as him, to already be so strong andpetent.


    The goblin silently hoped for Stolgob to one day manage to get Irgob¡¯s affection.


    ¡¯I believe in you, brother!¡¯


    Then, there was the tribe¡¯s only mage Pokzgob, who was a slight bit older than him but still youthful, goblin¡¯s with talents in the arts of using the natural energies were rare, it was said in the tribe that before Pokzgob and his earth magic, there had only been three others capable of manipting energy.


    Though, after that they started speaking of how one of them had actually been a user of mind power and not mana, the goblin didn¡¯t understand anything from that point on.


    Neither did the other, they were just that much better at pretending to know.


    He ran around like this for the rest of the day, only allowing himself to take a break when night was falling.


    The sun was slowly beginning to dim, allowing the dark to set in.


    ¡¯Damn, this one¡¯s going to be pitch ck¡¯ he remarked to himself as he headed for the tent he and his family lived in.


    It was just within sight, some goblins were even sleeping outside, since the days and night had been growing warmer recently.


    As it turns out, the underground also replicated the passing of the seasons, how urate it was to the outside, nobody knew, the goblins didn¡¯t even know that there was an outside.


    The tribe was surrounded by basic fences, built alongside trees, it was sturdy and no dangerous animal or monsters could somehow find their way inside, although the most dangerous thing around were big deer monsters with bone tes on their head.


    They weren¡¯t that aggressive either way.


    The absolute darkness was soon to settle in but its reign was yet to be established, allowing the goblin to look over to the side, into the distance, seeing as far as the fence on this side of the tribe.


    He saw nothing of interest but his gaze still lingered in ce as he reached for the tent door, grabbing it, the goblin froze.


    He hadn¡¯t immediately realised it.


    There was something right up to the fence.


    No, it wasn¡¯t as close to the fence as he first thought, it was peeking from behind one of the trees, shrouded in shadows and leaves, something whitish seemed to be there.


    It was hugging the tree trunk, only allowing what looked like an arm and its head to be seen.


    He was utterly frozen in fear at the mere sight of this thing, his jaw hung low and his eyes quivered as his brain failed to decide between fight or flight.


    As though it could feel his state, the creature moved from behind the tree and moved right up to the fence, sticking one of its thin arms through.


    Slowly moving its hand, it showed the goblin its palm and then crooked its index finger.


    Mechanically moving it back and forth, urging him toe closer.


    It was enough for him to break out of his trance and scream.

 Chapter 9: Intrusion

    By the time other goblins came to see what was happening, the mysterious creature was long gone and the darkness was already settling in.


    There was nothing that could be done now, the goblin could only make a poor attempt at exining what he had seen.


    Putting his impression into words was overwhelmingly difficult however and he quickly realised that he hadn¡¯t seen much of this being at all, his idea of it was born solely from the sheer terror it had inspired into his heart and psyche.


    Really, after he managed to calm down, now that he wasying down and slowly feeling more and more tired, he tried to remember the details of this strange figure, its mannerisms, its appearance, anything.


    It only inspired a deep sensation of unease, everything about it was off putting and simply wrong.


    He remained on the edge of slumber for a while, ncing around the pitch ck tent, staring intensely in the direction of each little sound, no matter howmon the noises may have been, he couldn¡¯t help but associate them with the presence of the beast.


    Sleep eventually imed him however and he awoke the next day, refreshed and with his mind hazy, he slowly rose from his rudimentary, butfortable bedding on the ground.


    The image of the creature popped up in his mind again.


    Feeling a cold sweat overtake him in spite of the ambient heat, he got out of his tent before anyone else of his family, the sun blinded him severely, it took him a few minutes to get used to it.


    It seemed like he had awoken early, most of the goblins that had chosen to sleep outside were stillying there in random positions.


    The only ones that were missing were the hunters, today wasn¡¯t a hunting day but they were used to waking up early, since he couldn¡¯t see them around, it most certainly meant that they had gone to theke.


    The hunters were stronger and more careful than the rest, they were in group too so going to theke shouldn¡¯t be a problem for them.


    However¡­


    The sheer terror the mysterious being had imnted straight into his soul never truly left his mind, always breathing down on his neck.


    ¡¯Are the hunters actually safe from this creature?¡¯ he couldn¡¯t help but wonder, he had heard a few things from elders, stories passed down from times the goblin couldn¡¯t even fathom.


    When this ce was much more dangerous and the diversity of danger was far wider than what it is now.


    Theke had once inhabited abominations of the deep, but the fishfolks had eradicated them all a while ago, the waters far from the shores had also once been said to be the breeding ground of corpse-like creatures.


    Theke was now as safe as it could possibly be however, only home to delicious meals and a perfect ce to sit back and rx.


    The goblin racked his mind for any legends of yore he might have heard over the years, but after a while, stopped to think about the strange creature.


    Stolgob had first spoken of something standing in the water, ording to his description, it was quite tall since it was half submerged but still almost as tall as the run of the mill goblin.


    Goblins around here were about one meter tall on average, not that any of them had a clue what a meter was, they used themselves as a basis to measure things.


    Stolgob was just about ten centimeters above average, marking him as a tall guy.


    Gobstroz on the other hand, was a whole fifty centimeters above average; marking him as a giant in the tribe and really everywhere around theke, all of the intelligent species inhabiting the area were rather small, all about the same size as them.


    If Stolgob hadn¡¯t seen awfully wrong, then the creature was even taller than the chieftain, corrting with what he had himself seen the night before.


    Not many goblins were taking the sightings very seriously, but the orders from the chieftain were respected wholeheartedly, he could tell them to start crawling around instead of walking and they would do it without a second thought.


    ¡¯What if it¡¯s one of those ancient creatures?! We arepletely unprepared for this sort of thing!¡¯ feeling panicked at this prospect, he thought about making his way to theke to tell the hunters but thinking about traversing the small portion of woods by himself gave him cold feet.


    So he just began to pace around the tribe, looking for something else to do whilst waiting for others to wake up.


    With how hot the whole ce was, there was no need to bother with the central fire, he instead went over the Gobert¡¯s tent, which he had upied alone, it was just a tent like all the rest, only much smaller because the old goblin had never had a mate or children.


    He stayed cooped up in there most of the time, in fact, he only ever got out when called out by the chieftain to put his talents to work or to spend some alone time at theke.


    Carefully entering the tent, almost expecting to find the elder just sitting there, he was struck by that hard to describe old person smell.


    It assaulted his senses nearly as much as the chieftain¡¯s smoke, but it was much easier to ignore.


    Looking around in awe, he quickly came to realise that Gobert had been an even sharper mind than the other goblins believed, drawn on well-preserved tablet¡¯s of wood, were many symbols that he couldn¡¯t understand.


    Though, he knew what this meant about the missing elder.


    ¡¯He knew how to write and read!¡¯ it was no secret that the average goblin wasn¡¯t only small in size, but also in brain, in fact, the number of goblins with savvy minds could be counted on one hand.


    If one was the talk of the tribe, then it probably meant he or she was more well-off in that aspect.


    As such, while he had heard that they had a specifguage, he had never seen it.


    Gobert had had it in his possession this entire time.


    Intrigued, the goblin wanted to skim through the various tablets when a shout pulled him out of his thoughts, a blood-curdling one.


    Rushing out of the tent, it didn¡¯t take him too long to put one and one together upon seeing the scene before his eyes.


    The creature had infiltrated the tribe during the night.

 Chapter 10: Fear

    Wanting to make sure, or rather, wishing to disprove his own conclusion, he took unsteady but quick steps toward the growing crowd gathered where most of the goblins that had decided to sleep outside had been.


    All had awoken now.


    Except for one, who may appear to be sleeping on his stomach at first, only that he wasn¡¯t breathing and his face, which had faced the ground moments ago, was twisted into a stifled scream.


    His expression distorted by sheer terror, his green body had hints of purple intertwined into it, dried saliva had run from his mouth, all seemed to indicate that he had been suffocated by something.


    This goblin was the only one that had been killed.


    Whilst everyone was either panicking, trying to find out what had happened or just standing around without any clue about how to react, the young goblin could only realise the incongruity of the situation.


    By all means, it was no simple beast that had just wandered in and killed one of them, it had snuck through the fences, wandered into the tribe without being caught.


    When it decided to y a goblin, the creature chose to manoeuvre through the sleeping goblins outside and picked the one right in the center of it all, it seemed nothing short of illogical.


    The fact that it used suffocation of all means to do the deed was far from something anything they knew would or could do, on top of it all, this being had done it all without awakening anyone and then ced his body in the one way that would allow the corpse to pass of as slumbering.


    This was the work of a creature of great intellect, the choices it had made couldn¡¯t be random, it had done exactly what it wanted to do.


    It had shown them that they weren¡¯t safe, that an unknown beast could sneak up on them in their sleep whenever it wanted, kill them silently and leave without anyone ever being able toe to their aid.


    Of course, the goblins may be led to believe that the true culprit was one of them and not some mystical, never seen before creature risen from the depths of darkness.


    The youth only had to take one look inside of his fallen brethren¡¯s mouth to know otherwise however.


    The murder weapon was still obstructing his throat.


    A mass of pungent rot and vile, gooey ck blood was stuck in there, sticking and eroding at the soft tissue inside.


    The reek of death assaulted his senses relentlessly, making him gag and tear up simply for being in contact with it for an instant, he puked not far away.


    The chattering amongst the green-skinned monster only got louder as their fear and worry spiked, the cold hand of the beast had now taken hold of all of their hearts, with just one death, they had all been affected deeply.


    Death of one of their peers didn¡¯t amount to much for them usually, they may be shocked at the moment, but ultimately, they would just take notes of the reason why that goblin died and avoid it.


    The unknown killer had done much more than this, he had rattled them to their cores, perhaps much more than it itself had expected.


    However, the goblins weren¡¯t a disorganised bunch, the instant the chieftain showed himself, in all his grandeur and authority, his mere presence soothed his tribesmen.


    They didn¡¯t know when, but Gobstroz had gone and gathered the hunters.


    With Stolgob and Pokzgob by his sides, there was no need for a motivational speech, this trio alone was a paramount to strength in this tribe, they may be uneducated, primitive and objectively stupid monsters all things considered, but around thiske, in this miniature world cut off from the rest of the world, they were actually the mightiest tribe.


    No one wanted problems with them.


    "You three!" he called three hunters over as he mmed the top of his stone club onto the ground.


    His stern and utterly serious disposition made everyone reflexively go down on their knees, making the tall goblin sigh and shake his head.


    "The three of you will travel to the other tribes and warn them of the unknown dangers, at once!" he didn¡¯t dilly dally on any details, the hunters knew what they needed for such a task and he didn¡¯t bother to exin his reasoning either.


    He could have tried and uncover what the culprit truly was before alerting the rest but that was simply idiotic to him, they had all achieved a sturdy state of peace and cooperation, also, even if he didn¡¯t particrly like any of them, they could still be allies in case there wasn¡¯t only a single monster.


    Gobstroz suppressed a slight smile as he prepared to continue speaking.


    "We will all be working toward improving our defences!" in the end, he couldn¡¯t help but smile as he saw everyone¡¯s expression turn sour instantly.


    It was a point of contention in the tribe, the fences had been built under the supervision of Gobert when he was still a youngster, so it had been a little bit more than ten years since then.


    The construction had always been meant to be expanded on and finalised, but finding arms willing to do that wasn¡¯t a simple task, it was probably even harder than actually finishing the defences.


    Now that fear would be fueling their movements, they would be building efficiently and with attention.


    Turning a bad event into a good one was the strongest suit of any leader, or so Gobstroz believed.


    As the three hunters finished packing up their things and the chieftain gave out other orders, the abhorrent murderer watched from afar, sitting in a tree.


    He thought nothing, looking simultaneously at the three messengers and the rest of the tribe.


    Which should Loimos eliminate first? Was it best to avoid the rest of the living being alerted or was it to clear up the bulk of the living here?


    Which option would lead to the demise of all life around theke the quickest?

 Chapter 11: Starved

    I stood back in the garden of my childhood home, the flowers were pretty.


    They smelled like nothing, nature was silent.


    The trees stood all in lines, perfect lines.


    There were no trees, there was only one.


    It repeated over and over, my childhood home had disappeared and only this tree existed.


    The ground was no more, the sky had been reced.


    The tree was everywhere.


    I shuddered and as one of the reflections died, withering away from old age.


    Another caught fire, was cut, another uprooted, one was devoured by termites.


    I bore witness to all of this one tree¡¯s possible fates, thousands of them yed out in front of my eyes as I was unable to look away or think.


    My vision faded to ck.


    My childhood home was back, the tree stood in front of me and I was made to bear witness to another fate.


    The true fate.


    -Extract from Quideos Audit¡¯s most recent vision


    Following from a distance, Loimos could see that the trio of hunters were debating something, they wouldn¡¯t be gone for a little while.


    He listened in on their conversations, having been privy to many conversations amongst the goblins, he already had an idea what the three designated messengers were busy talking about.


    They were discussing whether to go to the bark dwellers camp first orst.


    To understand why it mattered, one first needed to have an understanding of how theke and its surroundings.


    The soil surrounding theke formed the rough shape of a reversed U, the bottom of this shape led to the durable grey, brick wall, where Loimos hade from.


    If one assumed that the small ind was the center of this miniature world, which it wasn¡¯t, then, the wall of grey was south.


    The goblins were thus, west of the ind, below their tribe,id the camp of the bark dwellers, those monsters had no clear campground, they lurked the woods near the grey wall, their numbers unknown and their behaviourrgely shy and fearful.


    They were guided by The First Seed, a tree that had lived before them all and would most certainly outlive all of them.


    It was said to be able to manipte the woods around its body, making it impossible for mere monsters to stumble upon.


    It would only be found if it wanted to.


    There had been other asions Gobstroz had wanted to share words with the tree and its people, all hunters had heard about how it had once taken a whole week to be able to speak with it.


    Being that this was the only group below the goblins, the three hunters wondered whether they should get it out of the way right now, or leave forst.


    Common sense dictated to go with thetter, after all, bringing the message of a possible threat to as many tribes as possible should be done quickly.


    Thus leaving the most annoying and possibly time consuming one forst, despite not being the brightest, the three hunters eventually managed to get their facts straight.


    By the time they had finally decided, Loimos had already moved.


    He knew the goblins best out of all the tribes, their tricks, mindset, intelligence, options, he had studied them for a long while.


    They were also the most prominent one in spite of having such blockheads as hunters, wiping them out would leave an empty space in the chain of power.


    He decided that he would be taking those three out first.


    The skeleton had taken a good look at their supplies, they had packed some food and canteens of water.


    Each of them wielded a different weapon, one a hammer, another a spear and the third, a sling.


    Loimos held no doubt that each of them would be capable of breaking his skull and bones when given the asion.


    Thankfully, the living had plenty of exploitable weaknesses, their need to keep their stomach full and their bodies hydrated was one of their biggest ones.


    The undead knew that they would travel alongside a small stream, not all tribes were close to theke and if they wished to gather more food during their travels, sticking close to theke wasn¡¯t ideal, the line of sight was too broad, animals and monsters would see theming from far away.


    These goblins weren¡¯t expert fishers as well, not patient enough and with rough equipment, they never bothered to even try.


    With this knowledge in mind, Loimos ventured ahead of them, running at his full speed next to the stream.


    As an undead, Loimos could sprint at his maximum possible output constantly and without ever having to stop, even if he wasn¡¯t very fast, he had no issue leaving the three hunters in the dust.


    They walked to conserve energy, had to sleep when night fell, eat and drink, utterly meaningless activities.


    The undead arrived upstream way before they did, it would take them a few days to get up to his position, meanwhile, Loimos was free to put his n into action.


    Laying his body into the small stream, he began to work on growing as much of his putrid flesh as possible, constantly oozing rotten blood.


    After experimenting with it and learning more about himself, he had managed to willfully produce the flesh, after he had yed the goblin in the tribe, he felt his control grow.


    It wasn¡¯t simply due to what the system called ¡¯Experience¡¯ or ¡¯Stats¡¯, reaping a life had simply granted him a greater understanding of his own nature.


    The flowing water wasn¡¯t affected in the first few hours, but after a whole day, it took on a darker taint as the rot kept growing.


    Unlike before, instead of simply remaining there without doing anything, the pieces that detached from his bones stuck to other surfaces, trying to expand all on their own.


    They had no mind of their own, they simply inherited of Loimos¡¯s goal and tried to grow over life and snuff it out themselves.


    Remaining in ce for days and doing nothing but growing decay, Loimos stood up and suddenly began to travel back downstream.


    Eventually running into the three goblins.


    They were dehydrated, not willing to touch the water after what had happened to it.


    It seemed like they had wanted to move away from the stream and toward theke, but their intellectual inaptitude had caught up to them.


    They had eaten meat from a contaminated animal.

 Chapter 12: Easy Preys

    The sound of sickly coughing resounded throughout the woods, blood tainted by dark spots was sshed over the vibrant green grass.


    The spear-wielding goblin was contorting his body on the ground, desperately trying to find a spot that would allow him to find a form of sce in his plight, he mmed his hands on the ground, trying to offset the pain in his stomach.


    No matter how much he bled, he couldn¡¯t ignore it.


    The one with the hammer had gonepletely delirious, continuously trying to wash his mouth with the contaminated water, having grown convinced that he could onlybat fire with fire, he barely managed to drink correctly anymore, drowning himself.


    As for the one armed with the sling, he hadn¡¯t been blinded by pain or turned mad.


    He had eaten the least of the meat due to feeling sick when they caught the rabbit, whilst the other two had been continuously coughing blood, vomiting and suffering from severe diarrhoea.


    Those symptoms dehydrated them incredibly fast, but should have allowed them to clear their organisms of the rot they had ingested.


    The trio wasn¡¯t so lucky however, the rot stuck to their stomachs, gnawing at them from the inside and unaffected by the acid in their bellies or by their bowels movements, they didn¡¯t realise it but they were decaying from the inside out.


    The sling holder was more well-off than the rest however, thanks to thepletely unrted illness that had struck him, he still had a chance of making it to a safe ce, where he would perhaps be able to find someone with the medical capacities to cure him of his ailment.


    There was still hope.


    Someone arrived, he heard footsteps.


    In spite of his condition, he was keenly aware that this wasn¡¯t a beast, he distinctively recognised a pair of two footsteps, not four.


    Only the intelligent tribes walked on two legs, smiling at his and hispanions incredible luck, he turned around tiredly, ready to justy down and let whoever that was figure things out.


    Instead of relief, it was nothing but fear and iprehension which overtook him, he fell on his butt as the strength was drained from his legs, they trembled without stopping, he knew very well that anything would be able to finish him off.


    His state made him incredibly vulnerable.


    The goblin¡¯s gaze was fixated on the tall being that was standing beside his delirious fellow hunter.


    That fool hadn¡¯t even realised that something was standing beside him.


    Wanting to cry out to warn the other two of impending danger, he opened his mouth only for a faint grunt toe out, his throat was too dry for him to shout, it only prompted him to cough up dark blood.


    Instead, he could only analyse the unknown creature in front of him.


    It was still day, he could make out every feature without problem.


    Fact was, that it clearly was a skeleton, that he could tell with certainty, he had seen many of those and even kept some skulls as trophies, what he couldn¡¯t wrap his head around was what it was supposed to belong to and why it was walking without its flesh.


    A more knowledgeable version of himself would have likened the moving remains to that of a human, maybe an elf or anything of that build, though it wasn¡¯t quite right either.


    The fiendish, pointy teeth were terribly off-putting, what sort of creature would need nothing but those sort of teeth? Only a creature that didn¡¯t need to chew or eat would find use for such things.


    It was much taller than a goblin, it was even taller than Gobstroz.


    It was quite lean in shape but eighty centimeters taller than the average goblin, any of them, even the fiercest and bravest of them would be stunned by having to crank their necks up so much to look this thing in the eyes.


    All that just to stare directly into hollow pits of darkness, if this goblin wasn¡¯t a hunter that had gone further into the woods to face truly dangerous monsters, he would have started crying already.


    Though he probably would be soon where he notpletely drained of the water in his body, the skeletal undead ignored the madly drinking goblin and walked up to the spear-wielder, picking up his weapon off the ground.


    It wasn¡¯t exactly simple for the undead to hold the spear, one was supposed to have something else on their hands for such activities, though it appeared like after a few moments, the monster figured out a way somehow.


    Pointing the stone tip at the goblin in pain, he casually pushed the point against his throat until it pierced.


    Twisting it a bit and shaking it inside the wound, he pulled it out just as calmly before turning his attention back to the delirious one, kicking him in the back of the head into the stream before stomping on his upper back, maintaining him under water for multiple minutes as thest goblin watched in horror.


    His legs refused to fulfil their one purpose for existing, so he was forced to crawl the earth upon his belly.


    This method of transportation was subpar at best, even with a head start of multiple minutes, the goblin was caught up to without any problem.


    Pushing himself onto his back, he grabbed a hold of the rocks used for his sling and tried to throw them at the malevolent creature.


    The skeleton had already dropped the spear and picked up the hammer instead, swinging at the goblin¡¯s forearm, the green fellow¡¯sst ditch effort was nullified and without getting to voice out his head was repeatedly bashed in.


    It took an absurd amount of hits before Loimos was able to truly kill the monster, he stared at the hammer, the weight of it in his hand was¡­ Off to say the least, it was poor craftsmanship and hisck of knowledge pertaining to the usage of weapons was also to me for this messy carnage.


    He had held the other goblin¡¯s head under water for much longer than was necessary too, but these sorts of skills came with trial and error.


    Loimos went on to take care of the bodies before returning to the rest of the tribe.

 Chapter 13: Stalk

    After Loimos was done dragging the bodies back to the dwelling of the undeads, he stepped back in the small area where he had yed the three goblins, something he never could have done so easily had he not intoxicated them first.


    He had known that his rot was adverse to anything living just like an undead, but he hadn¡¯t known just how potent it could be when ingested by one of them.


    He had dug through their guts to get an idea of just how little was needed to aplish the effects it had had on them and as it turned out, very little despite he and his rot still being weak.


    Killing those three had further empowered him, even if only by a bit, he could feel like he was close to unlocking more of his abilities.


    Normally, an undead wouldn¡¯t need to kill more than a single living being to get ess to their natural abilities, if they didn¡¯t have them unlocked by default like most.


    The forsaken undeads Loimos had met were simply drained of nearly all of their death force, he hadn¡¯t been and still needed quite the push to get the basic undead kit.


    He didn¡¯t ponder over it however and simply began to walk back toward the goblin tribe, after they were dealt with, dealing with the other tribes would be much simpler, especially now that the undead realised that he could simply taint their water supplies.


    Once he had infected all of the small streams and ponds, he would go on for the entireke, both the tribes and vegetation would be forced to sustain themselves on water he had gone into or refuse to drink, leading to the same oue.


    The best oue.


    It had only been a little while since the three hunters had gone away, though Loimos¡¯s sense of passing time wasn¡¯t to be trusted, a few years and a few seconds didn¡¯t share many differences to him.


    No matter how long he had truly taken to take the goblins out, the rest of their tribe had made some progress on their defences, it wasn¡¯t a shoddy job at all, the parts they had reinforced and improved on wouldn¡¯t allow him to get through any more.


    There was even one goblin doing some curious things.


    He was just moving his hands around, incredibly focused and sweating despite just standing there.


    ¡¯Magic¡¯ Loimos grasped his actions as he looked at the ground underneath the upgraded fences, it was barren and seemed much more solid than normal soil.


    Though the skeleton didn¡¯t know the finer details of the goblin¡¯s magic, he understood that he was condensing the ground to prevent anything from digging its way into the tribe.


    Loimos¡¯s first idea upon knowing of their intent was to dig, but it seemed like the goblins were being supervised by one that had more potent brain power.


    Although he had difficulties differencing goblins from one another, males and females truly looked simr.


    He had still managed to separate a few individuals and pinpoint some distinctive features on each of them.


    The chieftain, Gobstroz was obviously the most recognisable, his strength wasn¡¯t to be underestimated, the oddly finely-made stone club he carried around was clearly heavy and yet, he just strutted around with it all day long without tiring.


    One clean hit, even by this goblin¡¯s fists would destroy Loimos for certain.


    Stolgob was in the same category, although he wasn¡¯t carrying a specific weapon around and was much shorter than the chieftain, he would be able to grind the skeleton into bone meal without a problem.


    The one waving his hands around was Pokzgob, a mage with an affinity for the ground below by the looks of it.


    Though it seemed like condensing the soil directly was quite draining for him, when he was creating earth out of thin air to form a shape, probably to illustrate whatever he was talking about concerning the fence, he had no such troubles.


    Loimos supposed that forming an element from magic was simpler than controlling actual earth.


    He would have to look out for this guy especially, for he didn¡¯t understand more about magic, he could only recognise its usage but that was it, he had no clue what sort of force allowed this one goblin to manifest earth.


    Pokzgob didn¡¯t seem nearly as physically threatening as the other two, however, with his ample belly and small arms, he was clearly weaker than the average hunter of the tribe.


    Then there was another one Loimos took notice of, he had no clue what this one¡¯s name was.


    He wasn¡¯t chubby like the mage, quite skinny and unimposing, smaller than the average goblin, he was a non-threat in appearance but he clearly carried himself differently from the rest.


    Loimos kept on observing the goblins at work, he went through what he had learned during his time under water near the ce they usually went.


    The chieftain wouldn¡¯t leave the tribe reliably often enough and would most certainly havepany, he was out of reach for the time being.


    The undead didn¡¯t believe that he could be snuck up on in his sleep or otherwise either.


    The nameless goblin seemed quite fearful at all times, much more alert than the rest, the mage also had his own bodyguards now, Gobstroz wasn¡¯t taking any chances with the unknown threat.


    It only left Stolgob that, while not simpler to take down, had the advantage of having a grave weakness, which would allow Loimos to get him out of the tribe.


    That is only if he managed to gather the right parameters however, which he couldn¡¯t be certain that he would be able to meet.


    So for now, he shall simply await in ambush at theke, it didn¡¯t matter if other goblins saw their brethren be pulled in theke and killed, they would always need toe gather water.


    When they were too focused on protecting themselves while going, it would slow down the construction of their defences.


    Loimos was going to whittle down their numbers and gather their corpses.

 Chapter 14: Off

    "Do you think there really is an unknown monster roaming around?" a goblin carrying a bucket in each of her hands questioned without looking back.


    "Heh, doesn¡¯t matter, we¡¯re going to kill it!" another carrying a small spear replied boisterously.


    "Argh, didn¡¯t you listen to the chieftain? We need to be super careful, let¡¯s get the water and head back" a third goblin shook his head, he was clutching his primitive hammer tightly.


    The one with the spear rolled his eyes.


    "Pay more attention to her! What are we going to look like if something just grabs her and swims away?! Huh?!" the cautious goblin stayed close to the female whilst the more rxed one just faced a tree and began to take a much needed leak.


    "No animal or monster will attack when there are multiple of us!" he spoke from behind the tree, stretching his neck and still barely catching a glimpse of the other two.


    "I hear that on the other side, the kobolds have to deal with some big lizards that wait in the water near the shore, waiting to grab them, maybe that¡¯s what got Gobert?" the female goblin leaned closer to the imprable waters and filled one of the buckets.


    "Those are some old stories, the kobolds have long gotten rid of them with the help of the fishfolks" the cautious one corrected her, wholly believing that the source of their worries was unknown.


    "Which kobolds? The scaly ones or the furry ones? Mmh?" the goblin with a spear asked from behind the tree as he was finishing his business.


    "The dogs are the only ones near theke you idiot" the other goblin was getting fed up with this guy.


    "I got the buckets" she spoke up and began walking away from the shore, not feeling veryfortable with it.


    She could barely see her own reflection in theke, anything could be right beneath the surface and she would have no clue.


    "Where did he go?" the goblin with the hammer tensed up as his annoying brethren was nowhere to be found.


    His first thought was that he was being a pain in the ass again, until he looked down at where he had been standing.


    In perfect equilibrium on a de of grass, a small drop of blood attracted his attention, looking around the tree, he quickly found a trail of blood leading straight into theke.


    "..."


    "..."


    "Let¡¯s go" feeling his throat constricting, he spoke with utmost calm, feeling like panicking would get him killed.


    He grabbed the goblin with the buckets by the arm and began to calmly walk away, fearing that going too fast would only prompt the mysterious beast to strike.


    Looking back at theke, he saw a faint shape retreating back into the water, he didn¡¯t say anything.


    ______________


    Loimos stayed near the shore for a few moments before going to drag the newly acquired corpse back with the rest.


    In the center of the room with all of the ancient undeads, a small pile of bodies had been arranged.


    Consisting of six rtively fresh goblins, as well as a variety of animals and monsters that hadmitted the grave mistake of drinking suspicious water, Loimos had begun sensing death force, allowing him to track down the remains of the unfortunate wildlife.


    His control over his rot had also increased, he could coat his entire hand with it in ten seconds and also produce the blighted blood on its own.


    Apart from those bodies, there were also skeletal remainsying around, thanks to being able to feel death force, the undead had managed to discover where the goblins buried their dead, they didn¡¯t have a designated location for that.


    They just buried them wherever, which was how he had retrieved the body of the goblin he had suffocated in the dead of night and collected many other remains.


    The cloud of death the mass was forming was beginning to resemble something else.


    cing a skeletal hand on the decaying pile, Loimos felt like something could be done with it now.


    _________


    After the death of that one goblin, dishonourably ambushed with his loincloth down, things had suddenly calmed down, two weeks went by without anything weird happening.


    "Hum, something¡¯s not right, I feel like something is wrong" the chieftain repeated himself as he stroked his grey beard.


    His well-honed instincts were tingling, the odd beast should have struck again and he refused to wallow in the possibility that it had gone away or died off without anyone knowing.


    He had reached the point where he now stood by being much more cautious than the rest, which wasn¡¯t saying much about him since most of the other goblins weren¡¯t examples of intelligence by any means.


    Still, he could feel that a storm was brewing.


    He could only await for the three hunters to do their diligence once every other chieftain was alerted, he would use his and their own influence to make The First Seed move its old roots and at least point out the threat to them.


    The ancient tree didn¡¯t interact much, Gobstroz always suspected that it was because he wasn¡¯ active much at all, spending most of its time in some sort of sleep, or whatever trees did.


    If the threat was serious enough, it would deal with it and the status quo would return to normal.


    He looked around, his tribesmen were hard at work.


    "Stolgob!" the best hunter was currently on one knee and trying to charm Irgob, the fairest of the younger goblin¡¯s generation.


    Gobstroz didn¡¯t quite understand the point of such theatrics, in his time, if you were strong enough, you just walked up to whoever you wanted as your mate and proimed it.


    Shaking his head as he realised that he hadpletely missed out on the new ways of the youth, he watched as Stolgob waved his hands around at Irgob before hurrying his way.


    "Yes chieftain?" he asked respectfully.


    "I will need you to oversee some new work I will be putting in ce, gathering the strongest hunters, you guys will be uprooting the trees around the tribes and bringing them back in" the chieftain didn¡¯t want anything to be able to get above the fence by climbing up on a tree.


    He also wanted to have a stronger presence outside and around, clearing up the vegetation will also prevent the unknown monster from approaching unseen.


    ¡¯Something is definitely off¡­¡¯

 Chapter 15: Beginning

    The piled up corpses had been reduced to a pound of rotten flesh with jagged bones protruding from its bloated mass.


    It was pulsating, squirming and moving.


    Oozing blood corrupted by decay, it was dark and gooey, moving along the ground, crawling up the walls and covering the ceiling.


    The undeads were being filled with death force, their hollow sockets burning with ghostly mes.


    The mass of putrefaction emitted a visible smog, a miasma of death that searched for nothing more than filled every crevasses avable, it yearned for life, to destroy and corrupt it until only death remained.


    Loimos was the source of it all, putting his own rot maniption to work, he had transfigured the corpses into what could be likened to a machine which purpose was nothing more than constantly pumping this murderous fog.


    The undead had gained a greater understanding of his singr ability, he had understood even before the system had put this ability into words.


    *Primeval Rot*


    Its name wasn¡¯t of much importance, though the fact that the system ced it apart from the rest might have been deemed of interest to some.


    Loimos didn¡¯t bother much with this system, it wasn¡¯t like he needed its help to use his rot.


    Probing the swollen pile, he remained still and observed it for a while, sooning to the conclusion that it wasn¡¯t going to remain in function for a long, multiple weeks wasn¡¯t a long time at all.


    He was going to need to add more corpses to it, perhaps after a certain threshold, it wouldn¡¯t need anymore to remain in ce for eternity.


    Therge skeleton, which had been standing in a corner and staring at the wall for an indeterminate amount of time, suddenly straightened its pose, turned and looked up, blighted blood drooping on its skull.


    Its death force had been greatly empowered thanks to the miasma, it now seemed strangely active.


    Grabbing its lower jaw, it clicked it back into ce with a sudden jerk of the hand, its jaw now fixed it wasted no time and suddenly opened it, somehow emitting a loud roar in spite ofcking all the necessary equipment required.


    ¡¯Not quite death force¡¯ Loimos recognised the feeling of death from the roar but it had clearly not been aplished using the energy of the undeads.


    He wagered that it had done this using the same sort of energy used in magic as he followed after therge undead as it began barreling toward the shut stone door.


    All of the ancient undeads followed suit, though the strongest of them didn¡¯t require their help, pushing hard enough to flung the doors open and cause one to fall off its hinges.


    Loimos hadn¡¯t gone to check it out himself, but he had expected this sort of scenery.


    The path leading up to the door was quite long, it wasn¡¯t too surprising that they would all end up on solid ground in the woods next to theke.


    They should be fairly close-by to the goblin tribe, though there was another obstacle in the way.


    Small shapes emerged from the trees, staring at the undeads with curious, glowing yellow eyes.


    The bark dwellers didn¡¯t recognise the undeads for what they were, they were just like the goblins, ignorant.


    Though, even the least intelligent of species didn¡¯t need to know what an undead was to feel fear at their sight.


    The miasma, which had been locked up inside of the confines hadn¡¯t been able to expand beyond the door, at the touch of the soft tall grass, it began to travel a little bit faster, hungry for the nt¡¯s life force.


    The bark dwellers were all running away, their survival was only thanks to The First Seed in the first ce, they were under its protection and didn¡¯t know how to deal with conflict on their own.


    So they all retreated into the woods, hoping that their godfather¡¯s maniption of the woods would keep the terrifying corpses away from them.


    The undeads seemed on the verge of giving chase but stopped upon hearing a distinctive ¡¯ck¡¯ noise.


    None could actuallymunicate with one another but they all shared the same goal, they already seemed to acknowledge Loimos as an undead that should be followed, so they stopped and stayed still as he closed his jaw shut.


    Seemingly unwilling to borate he simply began picking up the vegetation that had been drained of life and the rest followed suit.


    There was no need to rush in, be destroyed and waste perfectly good chances of killing life, the simplest way of taking out all life in here was to feed the generator of miasma.


    In the state that it was now, it could only restore the undeads to their true glory by filling up the missing death force animating them.


    Case in point, Loimos hadn¡¯t seen much improvement at all unlike the rest who could now run around and burst through stone doors when they struggled with moving around before.


    The miasma did have the property of enhancing the dead beyond their current limits but it was faint enough that it could be ignored.


    It was also having a struggle with des of grass, these living couldn¡¯t defend themselves at all.


    The miasma was the bare minimum, goblins would be able to walk through it without much problem.


    Instead of running after the bark dwellers, the small undead troop began to gather the drained vegetation and dig up whatever remains they could find.


    They brought the swollen mass of rot out into the open too, elerating the rate at which they could fuel it, the more they fueled it, the faster it drained the surroundings of life.


    The faster life around it was killed, the more it could be fueled, resulting in an endless loop that could only end once nothing was alive and everything had been converted to death.


    It was also to be mentioned that everything the smog eradicated counted as if Loimos had done it himself, because it was exactly what was happening.


    The fog and rot were all his.


    Once entire trees began to be drained, it was simply the beginning of the end.


    Or rather, it was the beginning.

 Chapter 16: From The Fog

    "Yeah, I knew something was off" surrounded by the utter chaos and collective hysteria his tribe had devolved into, Gobstroz felt oddly cold-headed as he stared ahead at the ever growing wall of dark fog.


    The smog was high, seemingly expanding in height faster than it spread on the ground.


    Its effects were obvious, seeing the nts and trees falling apart, growing strange, tumour-looking fleshy protuberances, oozing a dark and gooey substance, it was clearly something no one would want to touch under any circumstances.


    He had no clue whether or not this was rted to his previous problem of mysterious creature and he frankly didn¡¯t care, at the rate this thing was progressing, it would engulf his tribe in a week, and that was being optimistic.


    This deadly smoke wouldn¡¯t care for their improved defences and might, it wasn¡¯t something he could face in a fight, it was a natural disaster, the first to ever befall the inhabitants of this underground world.


    "Chieftain?" a mousy voice called out to him.


    "Go on" he gave permission to speak as he turned around, not bothering to identify who was speaking, any ideas, no matter how idiotic was worth listening to at the moment.


    ¡¯Oh, it¡¯s that kid, what was his name again?¡¯ he recognised the goblin that had spoken to him about Gobert¡¯s disappearance, an unremarkable member of the tribe, easily forgotten about.


    Gobstroz still managed to remember this fellow¡¯s name.


    "Imigob, what is the matter?" he added as he saw that his tribesman was still hesitant about giving his opinion.


    "Hurm, chieftain, I, I have an idea to slow down the mist" he looked away as he spoke.


    "Then go ahead, exin" Gobstroz nudged him to continue, grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to stand up as he brought the smaller goblin next to him, both facing the unstoppable miasma.


    "Well, I noticed something about it¡­" he was still fidgety but kept on nheless.


    "If you could look over there¡­" he pointed at the ground in front of the death cloud.


    "The grass and flowers die faster than than bushes and trees, and the mist advances faster into those areas as well, so-"


    "Oh!" The chieftain mmed his fist into his hand as he understood, he hadn¡¯t thought of it like that, but hearing about it from Imigob made him realise this obvious fact.


    "So it would seem that the mist progresses at the speed at which it can kill things, growing over the areas it had already grazed¡­" the young goblin finished his thought.


    "I think I see where you are going, but go on Imigob!" the chieftain pped the goblin¡¯s bald head, encouraging him.


    "O-Okay! I would suggest that we burn the ground and vegetation in between the mist and the tribe, so as to slow its approach" Imigob stared into the miasma as he spoke.


    "That¡¯s what I thought, howe I never heard that you had such a good head on your shoulder" the chieftain began to walk away, scooping some of the panicked goblins to go and do some scorched earth tactic.


    Imigob remained in ce, staring at the approaching smog with a fearful expression, looking from behind the false safety of the fence, he saw something move.


    He tensed up, his eyes widening as he stared at the vague shape moving and pushing through the dense mist.


    ¡¯It¡¯s¡­ Getting thicker?¡¯ the miasma was turning darker and proliferating faster, it was all happening so fast, he could hardly believe it.


    With a thud, a huge, skeletal monster emerged from the fog, covered in a dark, oily liquid, it yelled out toward the tribe.


    Before the sound could reach Imigob, his mind had already gone into overdrive, analysing in too much detail every single thing within his sight.


    Therge beast wasn¡¯t alone, smaller beings simr to it were following, all appearing like walking corpses.


    Their empty eyes smouldering with dark fires, they didn¡¯t rush forward and simply stood there after making their presence known.


    Imigob¡¯s attention was centered on what filled thergest monster¡¯s ribcage, the mass of pure rot was pushing against its ribs, sticking to its body and entangling around its bones.


    The miasma wasing from within this creature.


    The young goblin opened his mouth as he turned around, ready to shout about the danger when the roar reached him.


    Him and all of the other green monsters suddenly grew pale as their muscles tensed up, their heart rates suddenly slowed before growing stronger and harder, this roar had just instilled something into their minds.


    They had been forcefully made to realise that they could die at any moment.


    The roar wasn¡¯t powerful enough to paralyse the strongest members of the tribe and only halted their steps for an instant, still, most of the goblins were left stumped in ce.


    Unable to do anything as the undead troop got into action, grabbing chunks off of the rotten mass, they began throwing those torn pieces over the fence, at the foot of the fence and nearly everywhere else.


    The small bits quickly began to start growing, corrupting the rich life in the air, much richer than anywhere else due to being so close by to the dwelling ce of the goblins, a species with more lifeforce than the mundane nts and trees.


    The undeads then retreated back into the miasmic cloud, disappearing from sight after leaving the goblins to deal with the rot, which had seen some severe improvement after being nourished so much.


    "Burn the crap they threw at us! Don¡¯t leave any stone unturned, burn it all!" the chieftain yelled out, dragging the mortified goblins out of their stupors.


    ¡¯Damn, those things got all the way over there? Then does it mean that The First Seed was taken out?¡¯ the mist had since long covered the entirety of the bark dwellers¡¯s living space, but Gobstroz had still been hesitant to count the old tree as dead.


    It was, by all means, the mightiest being of this miniature world, nothing got close to even matching its power and control.


    If it had fallen, there was little hope for them, mere monsters.

 Chapter 17: The First Seed

    Loimos stood in the middle of the forest, now turned into a wastnd, facing a huge, leafless tree.


    The tree wasn¡¯t simplyrge, it had a face, the face of an old man sprouting out from the trunk, looking down on the undead.


    The old wood creaked and cracked as the ancient tree smiled softly, though there was a certain sense of madness to it.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t familiar enough with the facial expressions of the living to get much of that disy, he simply stayed in ce.


    The tree wasn¡¯t being affected by the life-devouring miasma, in fact, there was some sort of bubble free of the smog surrounding the overgrown nt.


    "Your soul, it is quite special, undead" it spoke slowly, its voice deep, so deep that it seemed toe from the depth of this very world.


    "You are an undead unlike any other, dead in all forms and shapes, never having tasted the sweetness, delicateness, bitterness of life" it chuckled, the voice was neither masculine nor feminine.


    Loimos couldn¡¯t and didn¡¯t wish to respond, he was only there to try and figure out a way to bypass the tree¡¯s defences.


    Upon being exposed to its voice however, it became clear to the skeleton that The First Seed wasn¡¯t nearly as simple as the goblins and other tribes believed, the voice wasn¡¯t truly present physically.


    But it wasn¡¯t urring within Loimos¡¯s undead mind, he could clearly feel how it wasmunicating with him.


    Soul to soul, they were much closer to one another as it seemed.


    "Truly an antithesis" it mused aloud without borating.


    A sudden burst struck Loimos, eradicating his left arm entirely, he didn¡¯t make a sound or any sudden movements, he didn¡¯t feel any pain or emotion.


    "I was aiming for the head, I wasn¡¯t off either, I shall watch your movements with great interest" not aggravated by missing his attempt at destroying the undead, the old tree began to fall into pieces.


    The protective bubble disappeared, allowing the miasma to consume the remnants of The First Seed.


    He didn¡¯t receive any word from the system telling him about ying anything, and he could trust the system for this, since it told him about every single thing he killed, from the smallest bit of grass and insects.


    Anything that was alive was counted by the system, so not getting anything for the ancient tree meant that it had lived, considering the soul to soul proximity Loimos had just experienced, it must have evacuated and simply left after using this tree¡¯sst bit of life force to try and destroy him.


    The st hadpletely erased his arm however and he had no idea if he could regrow it, it should be possible, he just didn¡¯t know how to.


    He didn¡¯t dwell on this small loss in the least and instead moved from his position, the other undeads should have already been done dispersing small bits of the miasma generator.


    Loimos looked back at said generator, the piece that barely fitted inside of therger skeleton¡¯s rib cage had been cut out of it, it had begun growing exponentially, moving it was impossible for the small group now, but seeing the rate at which it was now pumping out rot, blighted blood and miasma without growing any weaker even without nourishment was well enough.


    Grabbing a piece of the decay, he stuck it in his own rib cage and walked into theke, the surface of the water quickly darkening as he went by the goblin tribe.


    Taking a quick look out of the water, the goblins were running around frantically, trying to deal with the small bits of rot thrown around and not quite seeding as miasma had already begun to gnaw at their homes and defences, spreading much too fast.


    It was already toote for them to salvage anything and they instead started to save whatever they could.


    ¡¯They are going to leave¡¯ they had no other choice, they were going to run away from their own birthce, leave it all behind and try to reach another tribe.


    Loimos knew that they would have to follow along the edge of theke, for he had already contaminated all other water sources in between the goblins and the next tribe, which was inhabited by scaly monsters with snake tails.


    They weren¡¯t the smartest bunch and had already suffered greatly from his actions, even if the goblins managed to reach them, they would be greatly disappointed.


    To ensure that maximum damage was dealt to the goblins, Loimos quickly made his way toward the small, central ind and nted a small portion of rot on the tree there before returning near the shores.


    Sitting at the bottom of the water, he began producing the maximum amount of rotten blood he could, quickly tainting the water.


    The goblins wouldn¡¯t be able to get water from anywhere, apart maybe from some wild fruits, they would only be able to satiate their thirst by drinking the blood of beasts and monsters, which were most certainly already all contaminated to some extent.


    They would either slowly die or be forced to venture deeper into theke to get some untouched water.


    Loimos couldn¡¯tpletely extend his rot to the entirety of theke in so little time.


    If they tried to do that however, they would be attacked from beneath.


    Maimed and dragged into the depth, there was no cutting it, Loimos didn¡¯t need to put any of the ns he had thought of to deal with the tribe¡¯s strongest members, they would have to die without being able toy their eyes on him.


    Gobstroz had the sheer might to take on all of the undeads by himself, but it didn¡¯t matter.


    Nothing mattered for them anymore, they would simply have to ept death, something no living being could do.


    After their lives were reaped, it would be time for the next tribe, and then the next, until the entirety of this small world was overtaken by death.


    The miasma will eventually condense and force its way beyond the limits of this ce.


    Loimos didn¡¯t know what was beyond here, but he would be finding out soon enough.

 Chapter 18: Desperation

    ¡¯We are all dead¡¯ Imigob weakly, but correctly assessed the current situation.


    One didn¡¯t need his above average brain to figure that out, the only goblin¡¯s that weren¡¯t convinced of their fast approaching demise were the ones that were already dehydrated and starved.


    "I¡¯ll¡­ I am going to get water¡­" a goblin hunter with a bleak look in his eyes said as he stared further into theke, where water wasn¡¯t polluted by the reeking death.


    "You¡¯ll never make it, it¡¯s in the water, it¡¯s probably watching and listening to us right now, you¡¯ll just get killed¡­" Imigob reminded the hunter of what lurked out of reach, out of sight, that a rotting carcass that only wished for them to resemble itself awaited in ambush.


    "...I" the hunter hesitated for an instant, swallowing his saliva to soothe his dry throat "I¡¯m going to risk it" he had nothing to lose and didn¡¯t care for Imigob toe up with reason, he rushed toward theke.


    Grabbing hold of a bucket, he held his spear tightly as he ignored the headache and nausea his sudden movement brought him,pletely focused, he didn¡¯t hear the shoutsing from behind him.


    It was all white noise to him.


    Thrusting the spear into the ground, he rose his body up, propelling himself through the air and above the darkened waters, he flew through the air, eyeing the clean water with intensity.


    Holding the bucket above his head, he allowed his body to hit the water in the most painful way, so as to not sink in too much and avoid tainting the bucket with the filthy water.


    He wasn¡¯t so smart, he was stupid, below average even by goblin standards, but in the state he was now, nothing was left to chance, swimming the few meters separating him from the drinkable water, he filled the bucket and rising it above his head as far as he could, he began swimming back through vile, oily liquid.


    ¡¯Is he going to make it?¡¯ Stolgob had been watching from afar, silently rooting for him in spite of not believing that he would survive in the least.


    Now however, the goblin seemed fast approaching, closing in on the shore and escaping from danger with a valuable prize.


    "He is making it!" another goblin eximed, wholly unaware of what was going on beneath the water.


    Loimos had just been standing a distance from where the goblin had made his heroic leap, he just walked over, looked up at the swimming green monster and simply grabbed his ankle, hoisting himself up since even with the improvements of his ability to move under water, he couldn¡¯t actually swim just yet.


    Even with only one arm, Loimos wasn¡¯t shaken off as the goblin began to panic and struggle, the hunter was fatigued, his stomach empty, he had no energy to struggle with.


    The biggest and strongest were the first to feel the strain of ack of nutrition, the hunter stood no chance of prying the undead off of him, especially since he had to keep the bucket full of delectable water above the rotten blood.


    Loimos bite right through the monster¡¯s ankle repeatedly, until it was barely holding on by a thread of flesh, his bones dented and chewed, the blighted blood touched and mixed with his sanguine wound, bringing a pain he never could have imagined, making him drop the clean water and sink.


    Trying to scream out in pain reflexively, he swallowed some of the surrounding water, between the pain, shock, confusion and terror, he failed to notice that the weight pulling him down had changed its position.


    Thest sight the rest of the tribe had of the brave hunter was of him struggling to move before a horrid undead burst out from the water behind him.


    With one missing arm, filthy bones oozing rot and blood, he resembled a foul creature of the depth, grabbing the goblin by the head, Loimos sunk his teeth infected by decay into the goblin¡¯s throat, quickly forcing the twitching mess down under.


    Straight to the bottom, the instant his life force left his body, the skeleton began converting his corpse into rot to fuel the generator still embedded in his rib cage.


    Theke was growing darker.


    ¡¯We are all dead¡¯ Imigob reiterated his earlier thoughts, he had allowed his heart to be fueled by hope for an instant, but it had served as nothing more than poison, only reinforcing his nihilistic belief.


    Their numbers, their prodigal members, their defences, it was all for naught.


    "We are no match for the dead" heid on the ground, his empty gaze fixated at the sun up above as it slowly grew dimmer.


    It wasn¡¯t time for night yet, a dark cloud had begun rising in the air, the miasma pursuing them was only growing stronger and faster as time went on, and now, it was expanding its cruel dominion over to the skies.


    It made no doubt in the goblin¡¯s mind that the very sun itself would soon be consumed and be nothing more than another medium for the rot to spread even further.


    "We have been forsaken by the gods" Stolgob looked over to the love of his life, Irgob who was currently spouting some pretty scary stuff.


    He would have liked to say something tofort her but really had no clue what he should say about this.


    Say that there were no gods? That¡¯s depressing if she truly believed in them.


    Say that they hadn¡¯t been abandoned? That was just wishful thinking .


    "We are not dead yet, we can still triumph" in the end, he settled to just push back the inevitable and also use a big word to show off how smart he was.


    Silence had befallen the entire tribe after witnessing the hunter¡¯s brutal death.


    Pokzgob, the mage of the tribe approached the chieftain with a grim expression.


    "I have been sensing the vibrations in the earth" he began, his face told of his mental tiredness as he had been circting his mana into the ground without stop.


    Gobstroz nodded his head, indicating for the mage to keep on speaking.


    "The serpent-men appears to have all died off, I sensed no movementsing from the direction of their viges, it makes no doubt that they have all sumbed to the rot and will soon be new sources for the mist¡­" he gritted his teeth and looked away "...We have no other choice but to push past and move toward the fishfolks" he concluded and turned away.


    Loimos emerged from the water, onto the small ind, within sight of all the goblins, holding up the disembodied and already rotting head of the hunter.


    A sign of what was toe.

 Chapter 19: Emerging

    "It won¡¯t stop, it will never stop, stop, stop, why won¡¯t it stop?!" Imigob crawled to the ground and assumed the form of a ball, delirium was slowly creeping up onto him.


    Its vile tendrils of pure white probing and pinching at his mind, at his brain, his soul.


    Pulling and stretching, pulling and stretching.


    It wouldn¡¯t stop, it won¡¯t stop, it refuses to stop.


    The pain was getting greater, yet lessening at the same time, colours and shapes were blending together, was it his vision deteriorating or was it the effects of the approaching miasma?


    He was having difficulties telling reality from the hallucinations brought by his malnourished body, slowly approaching death, its grasp was cold and the fear it installed into his heart didn¡¯t fall.


    Aware that death was inevitable, he thought that the terror would eventually begin to fade away, dilute as he slowly began to decay alive.


    He was wrong.


    Standing up to his feet, he was unable to stop himself from scanning his surroundings, still looking for a way out.


    Few goblins still retained coherence and autonomy, despite being blessed by intelligence and sapience, they weren¡¯t high up on that scale, starvation and dehydration ravaged them much faster than one might expect.


    Imigob enjoyed the luxury of a greater mind, he was able to see his brethren falling apart, the proud hunters, much more skilled and powerful than he was, they wouldn¡¯t be able to put up any fight in the state they were in.


    "Still not stopping¡­" he sounded like an old tree copsing under its own weight, his throatpletely dry, the thought of quenching himself with the pungent water forced its way into his brain for an instant.


    He looked up as a shadow was cast over him.


    Was the chieftain here? The figure seemed tall enough to be the old goblin, but the rays of sunlight passing through the shape¡¯s body was a clear indicator proving otherwise.


    Loimos had stepped out of the water, looking straight ahead, where the two strongest of the tribe were standing.


    Pokzgob, the earth mage was out cold, he had exerted himself trying to prevent the undead from hitting the tribe with throws of rot.


    Gobstroz and Stolgob had done their best to retain their strength and lucidity, but they had still fallen tremendously from their peaks, meanwhile, as the miasma progressed and engulfed more and more life-


    Loimos hadn¡¯t stopped growing stronger bit by bit, the arm lost to The First Seed wasn¡¯t back yet, but it was steadily reforming.


    Still, it seemed doubtful that he would be able to face them head-on, doubtful in their eyes, but obvious in his hollow sockets, he focused on the closest goblin.


    Imigob¡¯s eyes widened as he tried to step back, but he was too weak for any sudden movements, he felt the world turn around as he fell to the ground, not any further from danger.


    He raised his arms defensively but his actions couldn¡¯t matter less, none could reach and assist him in time, the chieftain and prodigal hunter tried to take aim, strike the undead with something and force him away.


    They had failed to properly evaluate their state, Stolgob missed entirely, his stone knifending straight into the corrupted water behind the undead.


    As for Gobstroz, he tried to focus too hard, more than what his mental capacity would allow in just an instant, his club didn¡¯t leave his hands, his vision doubled and felt like he was more likely to hit anything but the skeleton.


    Loimos bit right into Imigob¡¯s arm, grabbing him by his other arm, he dragged him away with ease, like an adult picking up a small child.


    Struggling amounted to nothing, Loimos submerged himself alongside his prey, not giving a thought about the fact that he was killing a monster with a bright future ahead of himself, Imigob was a genius never seen before in the tribe.


    Talent and potential couldn¡¯t save him from drowning.


    It didn¡¯t take long for him to stop moving, the rotten waters, now constituted of more vile blood than anything else corroded his eyes, lips and any soft tissue, invading his throat and lungs, he passed out from pain before suffocating.


    His life force dissipated, turning and transforming, shifting into death force.


    Loimos didn¡¯t bother to turn the corpse into rot, he quickly reemerged onto the shore, facing the only two goblins capable of fighting back.


    The chieftain rested his stone club on his shoulder, shaking his head and cracking his neck, he assumed a disgruntled expression as he stared at Loimos.


    The downfall of the goblins signified the fall of this entire, little world.


    As if reacting to the prospect of wiping out all life present around, his hollow sockets were ignited with a glow much different from that of the other undeads.


    The dark mes burning within that of the others were dreadful and threatening, this was entirely different.


    There was no fire burning in Loimos¡¯s eyes, as if twonterns had been lit, he casted a dark purple light in front of him, blinding the chieftain as an intense fear tried to consume him whole.


    All undeads inspired a strong dread, all undeads reminded without fail to the living that death would eventually im them.


    The stronger the undead, the most powerful that sensation was.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t very strong, but the terror he emitted was nearly paralysing.


    "Stolgob, take your beauty and do your best to run" Gobstroz was the chieftain of this tribe, he had no other choice but to be buried alongside his tribesmen.


    Stolgob had no such obligations and it could always be justified as an attempt to preserve their heritage and legacy.


    The goblin didn¡¯t attempt to go against the chieftain¡¯s orders and did as he was told, running deeper in the forest with rapid steps as he carried Irgob on his back.


    "Come over here! Face me like a man!" Gobstroz didn¡¯t have any fuel left for insults, so he just began making his way toward the walking corpse.


    Stone club in hand, he couldn¡¯t help but notice that Loimos wasn¡¯t looking at him, staring at the back of Stolgob as he disappeared behind the foliage.


    The chieftain didn¡¯t know that Loimos didn¡¯t have to make such an obvious head movement to be able to clearly perceive them, he didn¡¯t even know what an undead was.


    So he truly believed that he had his sights solely on the run-aways.


    He rushed forward, toward his imminent end.

 Chapter 20: Stand

    Gobstroz rushed forward, ready to crush the undead even if it was the least he would ever do, he raised his stone club, a weapon that had apanied for nearly all of his life, it had been short but so was the life of a goblin.


    He didn¡¯t aim for the skull, it was a part that could easily be moved away, the skeleton had seen himing from afar, even if he was lesser than the chieftain in every aspect, the corpse had had all the time to predict and prepare for his next move.


    The elder goblin instead aimed for the center of the fiend¡¯s mass, aiming to snap him in half and leave him powerless.


    Gobstroz stared intensely, straining his tired brain to perceive any twitch or movement, he was going to try something, he had to.


    The undead had already proven to be cunning and conniving, it would be nonsensical for such a monster to do nothing in this situation.


    Loimos moved, the absurdity of it all took the chieftain by surprise, he didn¡¯t evade the blow, he simply began to walk away, right past Gobstroz without showing any regards for the goblin¡¯s existence.


    Such a show of confidence andck of apprehension didn¡¯t deter the green monster from striking, what stopped him in his tracks was the sound of rising water, although the sshing wasn¡¯t nearly as normal as it should be due to its oily, dense, petrol-like consistency.


    His attention was taken from Loimos to the giant of a skeleton and its congregation of corpses rushing out, the smaller cadavers throwing themselves on the incapacitated tribesmen, digging their frail fingers into their throats and faces.


    Ripping and tearing everything apart without a care, stopping the instant they ceased to live and moving onto the next.


    As for their leader, he had been targeted by thergest of the undead, the skeleton with the elongated skull stepped forward with incredible speed, mostly due to being so tall to begin with, it mmed its open hand right into the chieftain.


    Gobstroz shielded himself with his club but was unable to block all damage and certainly not stop himself from beingunched off the ground.


    His back mmed painfully into the trunk of a still lively tree, the pain took root into his spine and propagated to the rest of his body, ming to the very extremities of his limbs, he almost let loose of his club.


    He forced himself away just in time to avoid having his brain sttered by a kick from the bone behemoth.


    Surrounded by his brethren as they were being ughtered, Gobstroz took in a deep breath, looked straight at the giant undead, its rib cage overflowing with rot and miasma.


    The bestial roar it threw his direction filled with dread, his legs shook, but only for an instant.


    "Come here! Be a good corpse and lie down for good!" Gobstroz responded with a roar of his own and began moving forward, advancing with quick steps, he was going to die today.


    But he didn¡¯t have to lose.


    ______________


    Stolgob ran and ran with stop, weaving through the woods expertly, still, he was slower than normal, he was tiring faster, his muscles weren¡¯t outputting nearly as much power as they did during the hunts.


    He was rapidly weakening, he had to find a ce to hide, somewhere the dead wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him.


    He reached the limits of the miniature world, the limit of the entire world in his eyes.


    The grey stone bricks used to be covered in vegetation, moss and vines growing so thickly on its surface that he had never seen the grey on this side.


    The deathly mist was making its approach faster and faster, its decaying capabilities growing more and more potent, it had caused the vegetation to subside, to back off from its own territory.


    It had also begun to gnaw and enfeeble the walls, the rock was eroding and turning, even the inanimate wasn¡¯t spread by its ruthless dominion, just contact with life wasn¡¯t tolerated.


    Stolgob saw an opportunity, it was meager but he saw the light of hope, his speed increased and he reached the limit in just a few moments.


    The stone was cracked, splitting into pieces, small pieces peeling off, breaking off into shards and dust by a mere touch.


    The prodigal goblin looked frantically for something, looking for an opening in the walls.


    There was no rhyme or reason to his thought process, but the mere sight of the crumbling convinced him that there was something beyond the borders, beyond this world.


    The corpses had to havee from somewhere after all, the safe haven he was dreaming off could be right behind those walls.


    He searched and searched, though weakened, the wall itself was still standing strong, defiant of the abject fate the miasma wanted for it.


    Stolgob found it, an opening big enough for him and Irgob to squeeze through, there was a tunnel there, it had always been there and the mist had simply revealed to his eyes.


    "Irgob! Quick!" he spoke with urgency, shaking her out of her daze whilst pointing at the hole.


    "We can get out of here!" he said with a smile.


    Then he looked back from where they hade from.


    It was pure chance, mere luck but their eyes met.


    Loimos was standing right there and the second he was spotted, he stepped out of his hiding spot, his sockets still glowing with the shine of an unknown purple.


    A purple so deep and strange.


    Stolgob had never even seen the colour purple before, there were many things he had never experienced before, still, his very being screamed that the glow wasn¡¯t natural, that it didn¡¯t exist.


    Yet, he could attest to its existence.


    "Go ahead" Stolgob spoke sternly and took hold of something wrapped in pieces of clothing from his back.


    It was a weapon of simr craftsmanship as the chieftain¡¯s own weapon, although only in difficulty to create, although one may believe the stone club could be of the goblin¡¯s own creation, even if that was hard to believe.


    The same couldn¡¯t be said for the axe Stolgob brandished at Loimos, the handle wasn¡¯t crude, the axe head made of forged iron, its size clearly made for a creature withrger bodies.


    Where did ite from? One might wonder, neither the weapons owner nor the one it was threatening cared for such a thing.


    The goblin and undead were at a standstill, but Loimos wasn¡¯t going to allow Irgob to wiggle her way into the tunnel.


    He took a step forward and pointed at her, cking his jaw menacingly he began to form a ball of rot in his only avable hand, his other arm still unusable.


    Taking this as an imminent attack, Stolgob moved forward to stop him, dancing right in Loimos¡¯s palm.

 Chapter 21: The Spirit

    "The spirit of life is indomitable"


    You may have never heard of this quote before, it isn¡¯t from me, nor is it from anyone you could guess.


    I have searched through much of my family¡¯s lost archives, all in an effort to excavate the past back into the light, so that it may not be forgotten, so that we may learn from it, so that we may avoid the mistakes of yore.


    In my research, I have dug up the retelling of a most noble, and mighty hero, sadly forgotten in spite of his legacy still staring us all in the face.


    All of us have heard, or seen, death hunters, valiant men and women who fight against the undead scourge without fear.


    Yet, none of us, none of them remember The Death Hunter, the very first who took a stand against death, the world we live in today would have been much different if not for his actions.


    He was the one to speak those words:


    "The spirit of life is indomitable"


    Ick context of why or when he professed this sentence, but I can still see their value.


    The gue of the living dead, foul and hypocritical creatures preaching the joys of death, unable to realise that all they do is merely live in death.


    They dare look down on the living, us, who breathe and whose hearts beat.


    The practitioners of necrtry in the underground tower would only agree with such an idea, but The Death Hunter could see past the obvious, he could see that there was beauty and power in life.


    He believed that the living could ovee their fear of death and be triumphant over the animated corpses.


    His name was Thanatok Ynig¨®s, and I ask that we remember him.


    - Extract of ¡¯Forgotten Heroes¡¯ by Bethome Meleme.


    _______________________


    Stolgob felt his resolve grow stronger as his fatigued legs took him to the vile skeleton in only a few seconds, the distance separating them hadn¡¯t been much, still, in the state he was in, the swiftness of his approach was remarkable.


    He got into position, the edge of the axe was somewhat chipped in certain parts, but it remained sharp nheless, this weapon had been cared for and looked over.


    Repeating the actions of his chieftain, he aimed for the undead¡¯s midsection, swinging from the side where the corpse was missing an arm, as his muscles tightened and expanded the size of his arms, a certainty appeared in his mind.


    He was convinced the skeleton in front of him would be unable to dodge, that the axe strike would reach its target and split the cadaver in half.


    Loimos chucked the ball of rot he had been making with any strength, it was only a distraction to get the goblin to rush him down, it wasn¡¯t going to shoot out like an arrow or anything.


    The small conglomerate of rot went over the goblin¡¯s head, taking his attention just a little bit.


    Reaching up, Loimos grabbed hold of a sturdy branch just above his head, grasping it firmly.


    Stolgob had no idea what Loimos was trying to achieve, and he hadmitted to this strike too much to stop his movement.


    He could only watch in wonder as Loimos hoisted himself up into the air just a little, still allowing the axe to go right through his spine above the hips area.


    Still, Stolgob shed right through with incredible ease, too much ease in fact, his momentum wasn¡¯t stopped in the slightest and he found himself almost losing his bnce.


    Loimos¡¯s lower half fell to the ground, cutting his own weight by arge margin and allowing him to rise his body up with tremendous ease and control, the rot stuck within his rib cage trembled for an instant.


    His ribs seemed to expand and move on their own, producing a sickening sound, making the goblin feel like dropping everything and run away right at this instant.


    Stolgob didn¡¯t have time to make any decision however, Loimos dropped right on his head, the goblin¡¯s head was submerged in decay and rotten blood, sticking to his face and eating away at him without any respite.


    The green monster threw himself blindly, trashing and rolling around in an attempt to remove the undead from him but it was all useless, the rot dposed his eyes, lips and tongue in only a few moments as the dark blood invaded his insides.


    The instant it reached his brain, he stopped all movements andid still.


    Loimos looked at Irgob¡¯s shuffling feet as she tried to wiggle her way into the tunnel, he simply left the rot to eat away at Stolgob¡¯s body as he began to make his way toward her, crawling as he opened his jaw.


    He repeatedly bit right through her feet and legs, to the point that he tore everything that was within his reach, his sharp fangs coated in his oil-like blood, the wounds already looked infected after only a few seconds.


    Blood loss eventually imed her life.


    Stolgob had failed everything he had attempted, but thankfully for thete goblin, Loimos wasn¡¯t going to disparage him or his efforts, it was something the living did, not the dead.


    Loimos¡¯s lower half walked up to him on its own, it might look like nothing, but retaining pristine control over body parts separated from the headpletely wasn¡¯t something any undead could achieve with such precision, some not at all.


    Using his rot to try and stitch himself back up, Loimos hadn¡¯t actually been shed in two, he had just disconnected part of his spine, which was why the goblin had felt no resistance whatsoever, he wouldn¡¯t have had much more problems had Loimos not done this.


    Though it wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as easy to reconnect, he had been the one to split himself, so putting it back together only took a few hours with the miasma produced from the generator eating away at Stolgob¡¯s body and Loimos¡¯s own rot.


    By a few hours, it really meant that a whole day and half had passed before he was stuck together enough again to move without falling apart.


    Making his way back to the shore, the deathly fog had already washed over the ce the goblin¡¯s had been ughtered, their bodies elerating the spread by a notch.


    The bodies had been consumed whole already, not even leaving behind their bones, the only bones left behind were those belonging to the undeads that had been destroyed.


    All of the ancient undeads had fallen, all of the tribesmen may have been killed but Gobstoz had replied in kind, taking them all down, including the bone giant, before breathing hisst.

 Chapter 22: Seven

    It was a shame to lose manpower, but also not an issue in the least, the goal of the dead had been aplished, the goblins, who had been the only monster tribe aware of the existence of the undead, had been silenced.


    Now, even if a few monsters managed to escape the miasma, they would have no clue what it was or where it could havee from, Loimos held that certainty that it was best to keep the living oblivious.


    It was easily done here, the somewhat intelligent monsters had no clue what an undead was, but it would be idiotic to believe that the miasma could¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t be linked to undeath by smarter species.


    Loimos spent the next weeks it took the miasma to spread, to do whatever appeared best, the system granted ¡¯skills¡¯ that granted visible improvement to whatever they pertained, a single level wouldn¡¯t be visible for most but as an undead with a perfect idea of his capabilities at all time, even the slightest of chance was noticeable.


    Another proof that death was superior to life.


    The death of all life contained within the walls of the underground also brought what the system referred to as ¡¯experience¡¯, which went into ¡¯levels¡¯ and when the number next to level increased, it wouldn¡¯t then be the numbers next to the various ¡¯stats¡¯ that would increase.


    This also brought some moderate improvements, which was always wee.


    The system wasn¡¯t alive after all, so Loimos wouldn¡¯t reject its offerings.


    The skeleton also went through the notifications the system would sometimes manifest in his sight, Loimos was never bothered by them as they couldn¡¯t impair his senses, but he never bothered to analyse what they contained.


    You yed this, you yed that, you went up a level, you obtained a title, you obtained a skill¡­


    It was quite dutiful in informing him of everything that was going on, he might have been touched, had he been able to feel anything.


    Thest week soon came, the week during which all of the life remaining would be extinct.


    On the first day of thest week, the miasma reached high and surrounded the source of light, the one shining sunlight during the day, and moonlight during the night.


    Only darkness was left for the few survivors, the endless dark of death was presented to them in a lesser form, still, they shuddered.


    On the second day toward the end, the miasma had absorbed all of the breathable air, leaving only its own toxic self for the remaining to try and sustain their existence, their life was beginning to seep.


    They were made to realise how wrong and improper it was, how limiting their need to breath truly was.


    On the third day leading to extinction, the disappearance of light and non-toxic air led to the demise of all nt life, the soils turned bare and dry.


    Cracking and copsing at the slightest of touches, even the ground wasn¡¯t eternal.


    On the fourth day of destruction, something essential was killed, consumed by the miasma, the obstructed sun and moon, source of all light in the underground was broken and torn off its vantage point.


    Crashing down, it shattered like ss, now, there would be no more hope for light to return, to ovee its prison, even it had decayed.


    Darkness had truly taken hold and taken its rightful position.


    On the fifth day of eternal night, all the life squirming and swirling in theke had surrendered, there was no more water, only blood as dark as true darkness.


    The first and strongest cradle of life fell, a grim presage for those walking the fallingnds.


    On the sixth andst day of life, the animals, monsters and tribes inhabiting dry ground, thest few that had managed to hold on in spite of the very air around them turning hostile, their remains turned to formless rot, fueling the spread of the miasma.


    On the seventh day, Loimos turned and headed for the tunnel discovered by thest victims he had yed with his own hands, ignoring the copse behind him, he crawled out and away from his own actions.


    This work was already done, it was time for him to move on and continue his most noble duty.


    The arm that had been sted off was nowpletely back, the utterck of lifebined with the thick cloud of death was to be thanked for its swift retrieval.


    Loimos squeezed his skeletal body through the narrow passages, twisting his bones covered in blood to get through gaps his skull barely fitted through.


    Until he emerged into a pitch ck crawl space, thanks to the hefty amount of death he had caused, Loimos had gained ess to much of an undead¡¯s natural capabilities, he had already demonstrated clicking his bones off and on.


    As though, he was an borate puppet, but now was time to make full use of an undead sight.


    Typically, skeletons and the likes held dark vision, meaning that they required no light to see.


    Loimos, hadn¡¯t unlocked dark vision.


    The truth was that he had gained ess to something else, simply called ¡¯Dead Senses¡¯.


    It was much better than a simple dark vision since it had everything an undead could have, shoved into a single ability, coupled with his natural capabilities linked to senses that had nothing to do with skills and other system abilities, saying that he could just see in the dark was a vast understatement.


    The crawl space he had found himself in was rather wide actually, since he could move around whilst simply crouching down, though Loimos moved faster when crawling on all four like some sort of demented beast nightmares are made of.


    He did have the dentition of one already, so it was only natural that he would start moving like one too.


    The tunnel had been quite long to traverse, a resilient living would have starved multiple times over trying to get through it, and Loimos had had no need for breaks.


    The miasma had trouble expanding there, also due to the fact that there was no life to drain.


    Loimos felt the now substantial reinforcement it had been granting him wear off as he crawled around until he found an opening in the ground.


    Slowly sticking his head out of the hole, he solely twisted his skull around to look around.


    It would seem like the crawl space he had found himself in was right above a long series of dull corridors, filled with nothing but dust and deserted cobwebs, the hallways were all made of the same grey stone bricks as before.


    cking his jaw loudly, he determined with echolocation that it was beyond huge, and seemingly extending in all directions.


    Maybe it linked with the deep hole he had first climbed down to get to the miniature world, he would have to explore some more to see if that was the case, since the hole and original way he hade from hadpletely copsed due to the miasma eroding everything.


    The miasma leaving nothing untouched was also the reason why Loimos had been unable to keep any weapon or object, they had all decayed away, even the iron axe head, though it had rusted into a useless piece of junk beforehand.

 Chapter 23: In For It

    "Did you hear that?" a girl whose orange hair was haphazardly tied into a ponytail stuck her ear out.


    "Hear what?" Another girl of simr stature, but with slicked back blonde hair, revealing a big forehead questioned her with a sigh.


    "ck, ck, ck?"


    "ck? What do you mean ck? Like something falling? Like a door?" the word used to describe the noise was rather broad indeed.


    "Huuuh, like pping, but with hard things?" the red-headed girl¡¯s poor usage of her gift to express herself wasn¡¯t doing much to help her case.


    "That¡¯s- That¡¯s what ck means" the blonde girl rubbed her temples with her worn out gloves.


    "Do you still hear it?" a third person joined the conversation, a woman dressed in a purplish robe that had seen better days, she didn¡¯t seem much older than the other two, if at all, but she certainly had a more mature presence.


    "No, it suddenly stopped" the one with a ponytail was called Cassi, it wasn¡¯t a nickname, or rather, everyone, including herself and her parents, had forgotten what her full name actually was.


    As for the one with the big forehead, her name was Lynn, with two N¡¯s because her parents believed that it looked cooler.


    "So anyways, instead of making up sounds, why don¡¯t you exin what the hell this is?" Lynn gestured at the recently uncovered entrance of what appeared to look like a more than mundane cave.


    "Indeed, you are the one who dragged us all here Cassi, it wasn¡¯t to show off a cool cave and suggest that we make a base in it I hope, you are a bit old for such things" Cassi coughed at the words spoken by the one wearing a robe.


    The woman in a robe had messy short brown hair, as though an entire team of dedicated professionals was put in charge of making certain it looked like her way ofbing her hair was getting shocked by electricity.


    Her name was Eppie and she was the unfortunate leader of this group of four adventurers.


    Though that implied that they went on adventures, which was as far removed from the truth as was possible.


    Them and other adventurers for that matter, were more like a bunch of idiots ready to do any odd jobs, and sometimes do adventurer stuff.


    Clearing her throat, Cassi smiled proudly and proceeded to also gesture toward the cave.


    "Ladies, this here is no ordinary cave-" she paused to think of what she was going to do next, her presentation sounded much cooler and definitely more fluid in her head "-It¡¯s a special cave, wait, what¡¯s the word again?"


    She closed her eyes for a second, then another, and another¡­


    "Dungeon?" Lynn¡¯s eyes brightened up as she threw her guess.


    "Yes! That thing!" Cassi pped her thigh in excitement.


    "A dungeon? Are you certain? Why did you bring us here then? We have to report it to the guild first" Eppie rubbed her chin and put one hand on her waist, questioning the content of Cassi¡¯s skull, a question she had asked herself every single day since she hade to know this girl.


    The redhead¡¯s expression sank as she began to wave her arms around like a drunk octopus.


    "I mean-! I thought we could just take a look around, you know, just identally step in and find some treasure, you know, by just hanging around a dungeon, like normal adventurers do" weaving an excuse so fast caused her to bite her own tongue.


    "We don¡¯t have the equipment to evaluate its danger though, I wouldn¡¯t be opposed to the idea to snoop around without authorisation but what if it¡¯s a dungeon filled with monster¡¯s too powerful for us?" Eppie reasoned using hermon sense, a devastating weapon Cassi couldn¡¯t parry.


    Lynn made an ¡¯Mmmh¡¯ noise whilst staring in the direction of the dungeon entrance.


    "Well, can¡¯t you use a spell or something to sense the dungeon¡¯s mana level or something? I was told that it was possible to make a rough estimation based on this" the blonde girl countered with her own insight.


    Truth was, Eppie would rather not enter any dungeon that hadn¡¯t been explored by others first, she had never visited any herself, but she knew that those ces could either be a walk in the park or a manifestation of hell times three.


    Her and her whole two fire spells didn¡¯t feel confident dealing with anything that could be found in there.


    She couldn¡¯t argue against a fact she knew herself, so she just closed her eyes and focused on sensing the surrounding mana.


    Beginning by excluding her own mana signature and the faint ones of her three friends, she slowly worked her way toward the cave, excluding the ambient wild mana based on its elements until she could only sense whaty beyond the entrance of the dungeon.


    "..."


    Eppie was self-taught, and had a rather poor talent as a mage, so she always took her time when possible.


    To the other two girls, it always looked like their leader had just passed out standing.


    "Nothing" after a bit less than ten minutes, the mage came out with her findings.


    "This dungeon is dry of any of its own mana, all that is to be found in there is natural ambient mana that found its way in, I barely detected any signaturesing from rats, it has no monsters" she sighed in defeat, Eppie could have just yed the card that she couldn¡¯t sense anything because the dungeon was just that good.


    However, it was so unlikely that she kept it to herself.


    The ce inside was ancient and decrepit, it seemed more like whoever or whatever had once gotten this dungeon running had died off, leaving only an empty structure the children from nearby cities and viges woulde to get a fright or y stupid games.


    "Alright then, we¡¯re going in!" Cassi jumped in ce like an excited puppy under the judgemental eyes of Lynn.


    "Hold on, let¡¯s ask Tahnee how she feels about this" Eppie still had one more way of not setting foot in there however.


    Slumped like a bag of rocks against a tree, their fourth members had been sleeping this entire time.


    The three of them could only wish they could fall asleep as easily as Tahnee could, it was like she could just switch on and off.


    The moment her name was called, the fourth girl in question woke up.


    With long blonde hair that had umted a fair bit of rocks and leaves from her habits of sleeping on the ground, she was definitely taller than most, taller than most men actually.


    She didn¡¯t say anything as per usual and just headed for the dungeon, she was in for it, much to Eppie¡¯s disappointment.

 Chapter 24: No Objections

    The group of four manoeuvred their way through the copsed and tight entrance to the dungeon, soon arriving in the unremarkable maze of grey corridors, only the light seeping in from behind them was willing to illuminate their way.


    This was no problem though, Cassi had a bag full of various equipment meant for all sorts of adventures, which were rarely of use since they didn¡¯t live up to the name of their upation.


    Pulling an unlit torch and somewhat reflective stone, she lightly hit the wall with thetter to create a small spark, lighting the torch in a ze as the animal fat it had been rubbed in ignited with ease.


    "I see three different pathways, Which do we take first?" Lynn spoke up as she inspected her crossbow, the blonde girl was the designated ranged support, and considering the sort of junk of a weapon she was carrying around, she was a rather skilled markswoman.


    Cassi repositioned the visor-less kettle helm on her head as she nodded energetically.


    "Left!" she eximed.


    "Don¡¯t you know the basic rule ofbyrinths? Always follow the wall to the right!" Eppie waved her hand around as if she was a teacher in a ss of unruly children.


    "We¡¯ll just have to turn around and follow that same wall when going back, and I refuse to spend any night here and sleep in this¡­ ce" the mage shuddered at the thought as she inspected the surroundings.


    The dungeon seemed rather mundane and empty, in fact, she felt like this was the most basic dungeon possible, even though she had never been to any other.


    Still, there was something off putting about being in here, it was like visiting an old home, but strangers now lived here, and the house had been rebuilt, it was simultaneously familiar yet utterly alien.


    ¡¯I hate this ce¡¯ her mind was already made.


    Tahnee didn¡¯t say anything and didn¡¯t look disturbed in the least, whilst Cassi and Lynn were simply looking forward to what they would be able to find in here.


    The leader sighed and gestured for Tahnee to lead the way.


    The easily slumbering girl was the one with the best gear out of them, since she was always the one standing right at the front.


    An old kite shield Cassi had ¡¯found¡¯ and a short spear recuperated after a longer spear had been broken in half and thrown away by a fool with no idea what value objects held.


    All of the girls wore cheap but trustworthy gambeson, since it was the cheapest armour one could offer themselves, Eppie knew a little about sewing and such, so she was able to get some that were torn apart and then put them together at an even cheaper price.


    The real boon however, was Tahnee¡¯s chainmail, truly giving her the identity of the group¡¯s hit-taker, a real piece of modern cksmithing, earned with great efforts because Lynn¡¯s brother was a cksmith and that she knew things about him he would never want his wife to know.


    Saving on every expense and ckmailing even your own family was the truest essence and most primordial skills an adventurer could have.


    Which was why, despite looking like four rickety peasants enrolled for war as meat shields, these four girls were the cream of the top, from the one city they lived next to.


    Tahnee was right in the front, Lynn and Eppie stayed in the center of the formation, the first ready to shoot at whatever made the dire mistake of moving, thetter pre-weaving a ssic fireball spell, probably the most known of all.


    Cassi stayed in the rear, just in case something attacked from behind.


    The group paid attention to any trap or malevolent contraption but the dungeon was truly bare of anything dungeon-rted, there had been no monsters, no environmental hazards, no traps, no enigma to solve.


    No nothing.


    It was almost disappointing, though for Eppie, it was only straining her nerves even further, her outlook was that this calm could only be for a grander storm, even if by all means, calm was generally just calm.


    "Hold on" Cassi whispered, a clear sign that she was serious, which was worrying in of itself.


    "I heard something up ahead" the redhead had quite the fine hearing, she probably could have made for a phenomenal musician had she ever gotten the asion to hold an instrument.


    s, she was born in the backwaters of a backwater kingdom, without much appreciation for the fine arts.


    "What is it?" Eppie crouched down and extended her mana sense to try and get an idea of what Cassi was talking about.


    If she focused really hard, she should be able to get an idea of the general shape of what was ahead.


    Unless it had no mana at all, she should be able to notice anything on ount that the air around was nearly dry of any natural mana.


    She sensed nothing.


    Tilting her head, she trusted in Cassi¡¯s ears and she trusted her not to mess around in such a situation, especially when their only lights were a torch and a fireball spell, they were surrounded by darkness and had been walking for a few minutes already.


    Tahnee was steady and ready to intercept whatever could be lurking.


    Lynn aimed her crossbow at the dark space.


    "Where is it?" she muttered softly, Cassi ced her mace under her arm and leaned in next to her friend¡¯s face.


    "More to the right¡­ Stop, aim slightly down¡­" she guided Lynn¡¯s aim, pinpointing the position of the unknown creature based on itsst location.


    It had stopped moving the instant Cassi had heard it, as though it had been staring right at her and probing for a reaction out of her.


    That was ludicrous however, how could anything dwelling deep in this dungeon know that she, out of the four of them, would be able to hear it?


    The bolt was shot, piercing through the air and an old cobweb stretched in the middle of the hallways.


    It struck something hard, something that was standing right outside of the range of the torch, right at its very limit as the bolt fell on the ground.


    ¡¯It just¡­ Took it?¡¯ Eppie shot her fireball forward without hesitation.


    A bricking from the walls was thrown right at them, blocked by Tahnee, Cassi could clearly hear something crawling up and away, the sound disappearing in the distance.


    "We¡¯re leaving right now" no one had any objection.

 Chapter 25: Different

    Making their way back to the entrance wasn¡¯t a problem, at the pace they were moving now, the group of four should be able to make it in much less time than it had taken them to get where they now stood.


    "It¡¯sing back!" Cassi could hear the rustling and grinding of this thing¡¯s hard body against the stone as it crawled above their heads.


    Moving around swiftly and with great intent, this wasn¡¯t like a rat moving around in the attic, this thing had a clear idea of what it wanted to do and why, you could just tell by its movements.


    The redhead being the only one able to hear iting from far away, she guided her teammates so that they would turn their back to it.


    By all means, it seemed like it was alone thankfully, nothing else was making any noise.


    Suddenly stopping in a corridor to their right, it threw something at them from the darkness, not a brick but a mass of something putrid crushed into a ball.


    Tahnee peeled it off her shield with the point of her spear as it stayed stuck there, oozing some sort of oil and reeking impossibly bad.


    This went on the entire duration of their run back, the unseen creature would just throw whatever at them, be it pure stench manifested in physical form, or bricks and rocks that could definitely knock someone out, though it seemed like the creature wasn¡¯t throwing them hard enough to truly make use of their weight and sharp angles.


    If it hadn¡¯t been consistently aiming for the head of Lynn and Eppie, who didn¡¯t have the luxury of a helm, they might have thought that it was just trying to chase them off.


    Still, there was more fright than danger, they made it out of there in one piece.


    The monster veiled by the dark stopped its assaults when they got close to the exit, crawling away and nevering back.


    "What the hell was this?" Lynn questioned, her breathing a bit ragged from all that running, the fact that there was dust floating in the air inside of there didn¡¯t help her poor stamina.


    "Hell if I know! That thing ate your bolt like it was nothing!" Cassi jumped in ce, her helm falling out of ce and getting in her vision.


    "..." Tahnee wasn¡¯t shaken.


    "Calm down everyone, did any of that stinky crap get onto any of you?" Eppie took control of the conversation.


    Everyone shook their heads, Tahnee had blocked every single of those reeking projectiles perfectly, her shield still had some of the oil-like liquid sticking to it.


    "I¡¯ve never seen something like this¡­"


    "It¡¯s consistency is so great that it looks like ck worms, ugh" Lynn stepped away from this thing whilst Cassi just started poking at it with a stick.


    "Alright girls, I¡¯ll take care of informing the guild, I¡¯ll tell them that we investigated what we thought was a cave and that the instant we entered the dungeon, we got attacked, alright? Don¡¯t tell anyone we tried to loot a dungeon without reporting it!" Eppie spoke calmly to Lynn and Cassi, Tahnee wasn¡¯t going to be spilling any beans unlike them.


    "You know what, don¡¯t talk of the dungeon at all, don¡¯t even speak the word, if someone asks you about it, refer them to me, no matter how weird it looks or sounds, understood?" everyone nodded to their leader¡¯s pleasure.


    She led the way as they went back to town.


    It was still quite a shame that they hadn¡¯t found anything at all in there, it had been nothing but corridors and hallways, there hadn¡¯t even been any rooms to explore.


    Without any other monsters apart from this thing that attacked them, it seemed likely that this was a dead dungeon, something of no value except to those that liked the aesthetic.


    _____________________


    Loimos wasn¡¯t exactly certain what those four creatures had been, his memory had been filled with information on certain species for some reason, but he didn¡¯t have much description of them.


    Unlike for the monster tribes that had dwelled below, it seemed to the skeleton that knowing about them was important, goblins had been filled with terror at the mere sight of him, his presence inspired them the fear of death.


    It hadn¡¯t worked in the least on those four however, clearly, the resistance and strength of those above ground was on another levelpared to his previous victims, by arge margin it seemed.


    Even his rot seemed less effective, as though everything that had been below the ground had simply been of lesser quality, the grass, the trees, the inhabitants¡­


    The air wasn¡¯t the same, after waiting for the four women to leave, he peeked out of the dungeon, illuminated by the bright sunlight, it failed to blind him.


    The sun was definitely much different here, it seemed huge, yet, he could tell that it was certainly much further than the replica he had destroyed.


    Its light was warmer, more benevolent to those it casted radiance upon, but somehow, also hostile to him, as though trying to pierce right through his skeletal body, he may only know bits and bits about most things due to the random memories he had been gifted with, but he knew a whole bunch about his own kind.


    Some undead were allergic to the natural light, some to light in general, some would even be instantaneously burnt to a crisp for merely allowing one streak of light to touch them.


    Some of the dead were even weakened or unable to operate during the day, even if they were in the pits of darkness, the simple fact that the sun loomed in the sky was enough.


    Loimos didn¡¯t suffer from such a weakness, in fact, he could tell that as far as weaknesses went, he didn¡¯t have any, apart from his susceptibility to life force.


    He retreated back into the dungeon, he still had much ground to cover on this floor.


    He couldn¡¯t simply venture to the outside when four random, peasant-looking, somewhat advanced apes were simply that much stronger than him.

 Chapter 26: Not Allowed

    The floor of the dungeon, on the surface, was devoid of much, apart from a few rats and insects Loimos had hunted down, the smashed up bodies of the rodents decorated some the walls of the bleak interior as impromptu paintings.


    With no bugs to feast on their carcasses, they would be certain to remain in ce for a long while.


    Loimos hadn¡¯t converted them into rot and left their corpses out in the open for anyone to see, he wished for anyone that came here to never be able to guess that it was an undead that was on the prowl.


    He had tested if his miasma invasion was nearly as effective as it had been down there, and it wasn¡¯t, the air was much more lively here, so much so that it actively pushed back the miasma and didn¡¯t allow it to consume it.


    Life was everywhere, it had been there for a long time, only an incredulous amount of potent miasma would be able to ovee it and still, Loimos could only imagine seeding thanks to the fact that the dungeon was a mostly closed-off area.


    His death mist would disperse and weaken out in the open, where life was even more plentiful and where the wind blew.


    There was no need for him to specte about it however, he had begun to delve deeper into the dungeon.


    It was easy to tell that he had stepped foot in a new area, for some reason, the seemingly endless maze of straight, ancient and crumbling hallways of grey shifted into something else.


    A staircase led deeper into the earth, this staircase wasn¡¯t of much use to most at the moment however, for it was flooded with imprable ck waters, much like that of the now bloodyke.


    With his dead senses, Loimos could peer right through as though the water was pristine and perfectly clear.


    He stepped forward into the ice-cold water, in fact, it was much colder than it should be considering how warm the air was inparison.


    Loimos felt that it was cold, but he didn¡¯t feel the cold, he had the information but not the ufortable feeling, it was an opportunity for him to get better at moving under water, since he could still mostly walk at the bottom.


    The scenery didn¡¯t change much once he reached the end of the staircase after a few minutes, the hallways were very much the same, just with a watery vour added, nothing was growing and there was no sign of life.


    Looking around, Loimos searched if this floor also had a crawl space above and after discovering a hole in the ceiling, which was aptly ced and sized for someone to stick their head through, he hoisted himself up there.


    The crawl space wasn¡¯t flooded, somehow, allowing for a daring adventurer to catch their breath before diving back down into the cold and dark expanse.


    Loimos could see from his position that many other such breathing gaps were ced everywhere at regr intervals.


    When this dungeon was still active, it had definitely wanted for challengers to be able to make their way through here, but that was nonsensical, a dungeon should put its architecture toward inciting adventurers to venture in and murdering them, not escorting them through its floors.


    Perhaps Loimos was missing some information.


    Or maybe he was not, it wasn¡¯t the big question right now.


    The real thing that was taking up his attention was the clear sign of life he was beginning to feel as he moved deeper and deeper into the flooded corridor.


    It wasn¡¯t much of abyrinth, only a few paths diverting to the sides, but all ended almost immediately with dead ends, one needed to keep on moving forward to reach the end.


    Not having to do something as pesky as breathing, Loimos reached what was very much a well built in the middle of the way.


    An architectural nonsense that Loimos sunk into without hesitation, the well was tight enough for him to climb back up without a problem.


    Now, this certainly seemed more like a challenge for the living, not only was the well deep enough for someone to drown multiple times over even with their lung capacity doubled, they would be forced to swim down at maximum speed to hope not to asphyxiate.


    Which would prove difficult considering how narrow the space was, the deeper it went, the colder it was getting too.


    A true test of resilience and skill, but not for everyone, none of the obstacles could impair Loimos in the least, but undeads weren¡¯t really the sort to go dungeon diving.


    His feet touched soft ground, rising particles of dirt as he found himself in a wide pocket of water, no ce to breathe in, only jagged rocks for walls and ceiling, easily disturbed soil as ground.


    The room was roughly the shape of a demi-circle, on the other end opposite to the undead, a sealed door stood, about the size of any regr door but most certainly made of heavy metal.


    Small clouds of dirt rose not to Loimos¡¯s surprise, he had already sensed their life force a while back for they weren¡¯t even trying to conceal it.


    Small sized, piranha-like fishes surrounded him, frankly seeming confused about what to do with their sharp fangs.


    They were made to slice through flesh and cause heavy bleeding, what to do with a corpse? They couldn¡¯t even tell if that was an intruder or just a random skeleton that had been thrown down there.


    One went for it anyway, biting Loimos¡¯s forearm and wiggling its body, trying to dig into his bone.


    Instead of achieving its goal, it reached death as rot grew on the spot it was nibbling on, erupting into an explosion of blighted blood, passing the vile thing through its gills and knocking it out on the spot.


    Allowing Loimos to guide the slippery fish to his jaw and bite right through it.


    The rest saw this and collectively decided that it wasn¡¯t their problem, going away and burrowing back into the ground, pity that the undead wasn¡¯t going to allow that.

 Chapter 27: Second Time

    Leaving the fish monsters resting at the bottom, Loimos approached the door, sensing a considerable amount of life forceing from a singr being, in fact, that amount was so great that the undead¡¯s better reasoning should have dictated for him to back off ande backter.


    Yet, he took hold of the door, cing his skeletal limb against its surface, it had yet to begin rusting in spite of the water, but it was softer than expected, it was like the metal had begun absorbing the water like a sponge.


    He gripped the handle and tried to turn it, the movement was smooth and unimpaired, the door swung open on its own, revealing another expanse nearly identical to the one Loimos had been standing in.


    Only that it was dry, free of water even as Loimos unsealed the door, the water was stopped by an invisible force, the unseen wall bore no effect on the skeleton.


    Before the undead¡¯s eyesid a curious sight, he moved forward, some sort of chair with armrests equipped with various sorts of objects sprouting from it.


    Items made out of various materials, symbols shining with various colours engraved on their surface, looking down, the ground was free of any of that vtile dirt, it was oddly t, various circles drawn along its surface with the chair in its center.


    Loimos didn¡¯t step beyond any of the circles and simply observed the figure slumped in the chair, hooked up to all of those seemingly magically powered devices.


    It was a familiar yet different figure, one that had no business to still be breathing.


    The old man Loimos had first relieved of his excess life force was still alive, incredible amounts of life force being constantly produced and injected into his barely twitching body.


    He looked even more decrepit than he had been back then, his grey beard was nowhere to be seen, having fallen to pieces, leaving only what was hardly recognisable as a person.


    The living corpse opened his eyes, the effort being the greatest he must have exerted in a long time.


    Loimos looked up at the ceiling, there was to be found the secret to the old man¡¯s machine, all of the machinery took root from a single orb stuck in the ceiling.


    Muchrger than the others Loimos had encountered on pedestals before, this one wasn¡¯t the same thing, this was the core of this feeble dungeon.


    Not that Loimos could be certain, but it would make for a fine exnation as to why this entire ce was nothing more than the shell of a dungeon, the elderly man hade along and repurposed the core to his own benefits.


    And what filthy benefits they were, eternal life.


    The vestige of a man could consider himself lucky that Loimos couldn¡¯t be offended, otherwise he would have already gotten to taste his own ground up teeth against the ground.


    "You¡­ Again¡­" his words took a while toe but they had the benefit of being clear this time.


    The undead knew for a fact that this was the same person, their life force was squirming in the same way.


    ¡¯...¡¯


    ¡¯...¡¯


    Was he perhaps expecting a conversation with Loimos? Not that the undead was adverse against producing words and listening to some random guy that would soon be dead, but he couldn¡¯t speak.


    The crumbling sack of dry flesh sighed in realisation of this fact, and went on to monologue to the one being that couldn¡¯t care less.


    "I am¡­ Ramth, Ramth Of The Underground Tower" he presented himself, the undead simply standing there, the old man seemed to be meaning to reveal some important information, so his demise could be postponed by a few minutes.


    Ramth began to exin that he had been the founder of that underground tower, a secret yet widely known ce of learning for mages and schrs interested in the undead.


    Whilst the tower was quickly deemed heretical, forbidden and many other bad words, people that wished to study, learn and spread their discoveries about the undead always found their way in.


    Those that wanted to burn it down and hang all of its denizens never could find even a single good lead, Ramth was just that good at concealment.


    But unlike those that came after him, Ramth wasn¡¯t truly interested in the dead, he had only created this ce because he wished to understand the workings of death force, so as to manipte his life force to behave simrly and achieve immortality.


    At least, that was the theory, he never achieved his goal and ashamed from standing in the midst of true geniuses and schrs of the undead, he left his own tower and locked himself deep into this dungeon.


    The best he was able to create was this device, modifying and adapting the dungeon core, he made use of the fact that it could create life to turn it into a giant ¡¯machine of immortality¡¯, technically sessful, he couldn¡¯t help but scorn his own creation.


    He never stopped it however, because being alive in this way was simply so much better than death.


    Before hooking himself to it permanently, he had managed to create some sort of clone of himself, which Loimos had brutally ughtered on his first day of existence.


    "I only wanted to transport my mind into one of them" Ramth had used the orbs to transport the souls of others, and using the pile of bodies and souls as sacrifice, fuel for his spell, he hoped to manifest their physical form, kill their soul and mind and then ce himself into their bodies.


    All ridiculous make believe, he didn¡¯t have the sort ofpetence to pull this sort of thing off.


    The orbs weren¡¯t even his own creation, stolen before they were used in a summoning ritual.


    And Loimos, who had been forged from the countless corpses and souls, had nothing to do with him, he had simply been there to witness a natural event.


    "Curse you, who does not know degradation, who does not know the looming presence of death-" Ramth only wanted to speak his mind to the first person that woulde along, he had spent too much time in istion, he felt the need to talk.


    Yet, he had forgotten who, rather, what he was conversing with, he had stared at the wall whilst retelling his miserable existence.


    A skilled mage, but not one of exceptional talent.


    A man with a dream too grand for his capacities.


    He had failed to judge his own worth ordingly and tackled challenges that wouldn¡¯t topple over no matter how much momentum he umted.


    His gaze wandered to his listener and then, his words got stuck in his throat as he saw the pits of darkness in Loimos¡¯s eyes brighten up with a purple glow.


    A colour that simply didn¡¯t exist, yet did.


    The undead said nothing, but Ramth felt like he had received an answer either way.


    Loimos knew all that there was to know about death, because he was a pure manifestation of its grasp.


    "I-" the decrepit old man didn¡¯t get to ramble any further, he had nothing of interest to spout.


    Loimos walked up to him and with a single swing, dispersed the living before him like dust in the wind.

 Chapter 28: Not Wanting To Work

    The light of the rising sun shone light on the floating dust and dirtiness of the single window of an office.


    The nks and beams used to build this room had gone through many changes since they had been set in ce, heat, cold, humidity, and of course, theing and going on the two owners of the two desks ced opposite to one another.


    Nicely crafted out of cheap, but sturdy wood, a chair creaked as a man with a nose reddened by the regr consumption of alcohol in his younger years, he leaned back and put his feet on his desk.


    Today was another day of waiting at the local guild of Throdqdmond, most prosperous city of the surroundings and one of the least wealthy of the kingdom of Tamaris, despite being part of the, if not the richest country of the continent, the city and its surroundings had once had ess to lots of natural resources.


    It had all run dry, leaving ghost towns, empty viges and cities such as this.


    Those sort of concerns weren¡¯t on Frank¡¯s mind however, he was trying to take a nap.


    Failing miserably at cking on the job, he reached for a book on his desk, without changing his position that he deemed perfectlyfortable.


    Straining his body and feeling like he was elongating his arm, he touched the cover of the book with his fingers and managed to drag the book closer and closer until he was able to grasp it.


    Forgotten Heroes, written by Bethome Meleme, a recent book that he had gotten his hands on thanks to some random passing schrs forgetting it, truly a boon that he, who had bothered to learn how to write way back to impress a cute girl, woulde upon it.


    No other guild workers could im to be nearly as educated as he was, though many could safely describe themselves as morepetent.


    He opened the book at where he had left off, having only read the very first chapter, or hero in the case of this book, since Bethome Meleme was pretty much listing a bunch of guys from way in the past and going on about what was known about them.


    The floorboards creaked as someone made their way toward the room with hurried footsteps.


    "Frank! You won¡¯t believe this- Oh what are you reading?" a tall andnky man burst into the room, easily distracted by the sight of the tool of learning.


    "Bethome Meleme¡¯stest book" Frank casually responded, showing the cover to his colleague and friend.


    "Ah, the sham of a historian?" whilst Frank may be the technically most educated for he had received the most lectures, Louis was definitely more knowledgeable than he could ever hope to be, simply on ount that thenky man didn¡¯t stay seated in his chair all day.


    "Sham?! She is the most recognisable name of the field, everyone holds their breath when she publishes something, I heard"


    "Isn¡¯t Meleme a man? Anyways, didn¡¯t you notice anything while reading through it? I see that you left a bookmark, so you must have read the first chapter, he is totally giving his own opinion!" Frank titled his head at Louis¡¯s words.


    "Yeah, sure, but what¡¯s the problem about this?" he asked cluelessly.


    "Historians aren¡¯t supposed to be biased Frank, anytime Bethome Meleme speaks about the undead, he manages to flip off and go on tangents, in a written format no less" thenky guild worker shook his head, apparently, he had also read the book.


    "I mean, everyone should agree that the undead are bad, right? It¡¯s not that bad of a problem" he removed his feet from his desk and sat down properly.


    "Certainly, but he totally idolises that Thanatok Ynig¨®s guy, who knows what he didn¡¯t say about him so as to not tarnish his pretty quote"


    Both of the men looked at each other for a few moments, both nodding their heads in agreement.


    "Bethome Meleme is totally a woman though, I learned to write to impress a girl with her exact name when I was fifteen" Frank spoke with utter calmness before looking down on the book in his hands.


    "Huh?"


    "The next chapter seems to be about an elven hero"


    "Yes it is- What did you say just before?" Frank ignored the question with ease and just began reading the book aloud.


    _____________


    Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light, a heroine of great standing whose death was never recorded, leading me to believe that she might still be walking amongst us.


    Still, that is of little importance, much like Thanatok Ynig¨®s, she was a dire asset in shielding life from the vile hands of undeath.


    Her light was a direct counter to the undead king¡¯s darkness and capable of burning vampires to a crisp, by all means, she single-handedly dismantled the ranks of the dead by sealing their ruler in his own throne room.


    With the king out ofmission and the vampires unable to do anything, the endless advance of decay was halted and pushed back, to such an extent that to this day, many aren¡¯t even aware that we were once at war with an army of the dead counting numbers beyond our imagination.


    In fact, allow to me emit a theory that will certainly gather the ire of many of my fellows who would rather believe in the benevolence of the all-mighties above:


    The gift ofprehension and understanding was a reward for the cooperation of all life against death.


    In any case, Maiele Liameilos is a great figure, which I find troubling even her own kind, known to live for centuries and sometimes even longer, have also managed to forget about her incredible deeds.


    _____________


    "Well, she isn¡¯t so dead set on the undead part this time, didn¡¯t even insult their king" Frank remarked as Louis just stared at him.


    "What?"


    "Nothing, anyways, I came here to tell you about the discovery of a dungeon nearby, Eppie and her party are the ones that found it, they also reported the presence of a strange monster that hides in darkness, seems fairly cunning and can also take a crossbow bolt at close range without any problem" Louis decided that he would get the answers out of Frank at another time and simply proceeded with his job.


    "Heh, not getting harmed by a bolt from Lynn isn¡¯t anything too impressive, both her weapon and ammunitions are junk, it doesn¡¯t even fire straight" the red-nosed guild worker dismissed the supposedly impressive defences of the unknown monster using facts and logic.


    "We send Z and Saul to check things out?" Frank nodded his head at this, the two adventurers mentioned were the best around, not only in terms of capabilities, but were also the most trustworthy to work with.


    Because the two were brothers.


    And Louis was with their sister.


    So they had no choice but to do their job reliably, or else they would get scolded by big sis.

 Chapter 29: Brothers

    "Damn thatnky fucker" two young men stood in front of the dungeon entrance, one cursing Louis as he took a look inside.


    This ce was pitch ck, only pure darknessid beyond, while this was giving them the heebie-jeebies, the two guild workers with their asses screwed to their chairs had warned them about this.


    What truly aggravated Z and Saul was the fact that they had left out the fact that it reeked of death in there! They could smell it even from the outside, with a strong breeze blowing through, the stench of rot was assaulting their nostrils with extreme prejudice.


    The hair inside of their noses was shrinking and moving back as if a me had been brought before them.


    The two brothers looked truly alike, despite not being twins, they could definitely be mistaken as so, only entuating their physical simrities, was the fact that they both wore what was pretty much the same clothing.


    A nasal helm resting on each of their heads and wearing the same grey thick gambeson, only difference in equipment beyond their weapon of choices.


    Z carried a longsword and Saul was armed with a shortsword and round, wooden shield.


    Their arms were in a much better state than that of the majority of other adventurers.


    There was nothing around Throdqdmond that they couldn¡¯t cut down, still, they felt apprehensive about entering a genuine dungeon, even if Frank and Louis seemed convinced that the unknown monster wasn¡¯t as fierce as Eppie had described, the two had never ventured in a dungeon.


    Also, they trusted more in the words of a fellow adventurer than the two guys that had probably never swung a de sharper than that of a butter knife.


    "Let¡¯s go, I guess¡­" Saul sighed, unlike his brother, he was resigned to his fate of venturing into the dungeon of stink.


    Z followed quickly after, together, they entered inside, engulfed by the worst smell they had ever had to endure, they would have to take long baths to hope to be freed from its grasp after they were done in here.


    It was so bad that even when keeping their mouths shut, they could still taste it through the smell, making them gag and feel their stomach constraining.


    "Be careful, there might be more dangers than expected" Saul spoke with his hand over his mouth whilst Z shuffled with a somewhat diamond shaped object, having a hard time injecting his mana inside of the item.


    When he finally managed the basic manoeuvre, the small thing, no bigger than a pebble was suddenly illuminated and rose up in the air, shining a bright light that was so brilliant, the two men needed some time to adapt to it.


    The inside was exactly as they had been described, not willing to stay in there any longer than needed, the brothers went on the move, Saul had a piece of paper stuck on the inside of his shield, he was going to draw a map as they moved.


    Mapping was right up his alley, it wasn¡¯t going to be anything fancy, but considering the ce they were in, it wouldn¡¯t have been even if he was a map making genius.


    They might be feeling like hurrying, but now wasn¡¯t the time to be hasty, they had agreed to the job, even if against their will, they were going to do it properly since the two frickers at the guild had the merit of not being scrooges at least.


    And also Louis had put a ring on their sister¡¯s finger.


    They moved steadily, following the unbreakable rule of maze-running:


    ¡¯Always follow the wall to your right¡¯


    Bizarre how widespread it was despite on one in the surrounding areas having ever encountered any form ofbyrinth.


    They moved for a few hours, making steady progress, taking a break to eat some dry food they had brought, with much difficulty considering the ambient stench was refusing to yield, no matter how long they were staying, it wasn¡¯t getting any better.


    It was as if a bunch of corpses had begun rotting but had also all let their bowels fulfil their purposes onest time beforehand.


    Truly vile, definitely something they wouldn¡¯t forget before a long while.


    The two brothers were careful about the ceiling in particr, they had been made aware of the fact that the monster seemed to be moving through some sort of crawl space up above, each hole was a source of apprehension for them.


    They didn¡¯t possess the same hearing acuity as the redhead, so they couldn¡¯t simply rely on sounds, there was no telling if the monster wasn¡¯t simply lying in wait, ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims at the slightest signs of inattention.


    Nothing happened.


    Saul and Z were able to go around the entirety of the floor and loop right back toward the entrance by following the wall to their right, it took them quite a long time, but they were used to lengthy quests of this sort.


    Saul had mapped everything, they had gone right past the flooded passage but had obviously not dared to step in.


    They had failed to locate where the absurd reek wasing from, nothing showed any signs of rot, the water had been dark, but certainly not infested with filth.


    Without any sightings or suspicious sounds, the monster was also left unfound.


    Perhaps it had left the confines of the dungeon.


    It was more likely that it had simply stayed silent, probably above the ceiling, or hidden under the water.


    It also seemed likely that the terrible smell also came from it, or was hidden too.


    No amount of money could convince either of them of sticking their heads up there however, it only took the monster to be right there and it would have full ess to one of the most prominent weak points of the human body.


    Also, it was probably impossibly cramped up there, impossible to move fluidly and even more so swinging a de.


    The two of them were just about to exit when the sound of something falling down in the hallway across the exit.


    A figure garbed in a tattered cloak stumbled forward into the light casted by the floating diamond before copsing head first onto the ground with a thud.

 Chapter 30: Switch Aim

    "Oh crap-" Z tried to step forward but was instantly stopped by Saul¡¯s arm.


    "Are you really trying to go check up on this guy?! It¡¯s clearly suspicious" he stared at the fallen and unmoving figure, trying to catch sight of any suspicious movement or waiting for a noise toe from the figure.


    However, they were as silent as one could possibly hope to be and garbed in an ample cloak, they looked nothing more than a dark bump on the ground, he couldn¡¯t discern any sort of shapes.


    The figure was soaking wet, a puddle of water forming where it had fallen, taking a few more steps forward to allow the diamond-shaped light to reveal the full extent of the dark shape.


    "Ouch¡­" both of the brothers emitted the same noise as it came into view that the shrouded figure had an old, rusty de stuck in its back.


    Saul would have liked to point out ack of blood, but the dark mantle could very well have been absorbing most of the bleeding.


    "I certainly hope it isn¡¯t actually some guy bleeding out to death whilst we are just watching" Z voiced out his concern but Saul wasn¡¯t buying into any of it.


    "We checked every nook and cranny of this ce, this guy is soaked, meaning that he came from the flooded area, the water was nearly freezing cold and he somehow didn¡¯t make a single noise whilst making his way here with a sword stabbed straight through his back? I don¡¯t believe a word of it, let¡¯s just get out of here-" Saul was adamant on taking the least risk possible.


    Z on the other hand, felt like there was something to do.


    "Right, by all means, it appears that this is actually the famed monster that throws rocks and random crap, so, let¡¯s kill it" Z thought back on some things he had heard about the monster.


    What truly stood out was its shrewdness andck of mindless aggressivity, a sign that it was a cut above the regr monster¡¯s the two were used to kill, but that did not mean that it was out of their leagues, the simple facts that it kept its distances and employed such tactics should be proof enough that it wasn¡¯t one possessing incredible physical might or magical powers, it did seem to have ess to some terrible substances, but all signs of it had ended up disappearing.


    The brothers simply exchanged a nce and Saul spoke.


    "Nah, this is just too odd" Z sighed and yielded, they began walking away.


    After a few seconds, both Saul and Z reached for a dagger tied around their waists, throwing it at the unmoving figure on the ground, striking it, the sound of flesh being pierced and clear, yet the monster didn¡¯t move an inch or react in any other way.


    They looked at one another, Z shrugged and they both moved up to the cloaked dark bump, lifting the cloth from as far as possible using his longsword, they both stood in witness to a corpse.


    The corpse of a beyond decrepit old man, the upper half of his face sted to smithereens.


    Before any of the two could realise that they had been had, a brick flew out from the darkness and smashed the floating diamond-light, drowning the surroundings into darkness, the faint light that remained was thating from the not-so distant entrance, they were lucky that tonight was a full moon.


    Still, they couldn¡¯t see anything, and the sound of something running around soon filled their ears.


    "Back to back! Shield your face!" Saul shouted, the two siblings were close enough to one another to not be separated, sticking together, they began moving toward the faint moonlight, they had spent much time running around the dungeon.


    They didn¡¯t run, feeling like they were going to identally trip on something or run straight into a spike of some sort.


    The unseen monster showered them in bricks, no signs of the strange substances they had heard about, Z and Saul seemed to only be deserving of stone.


    ¡¯It¡¯s going to leave some marks¡­¡¯ Z couldn¡¯t help but think before a brick hit him in the back of the head.


    May the man who invented helms be blessed, he had just saved his life, or at least a bad concussion.


    Thepidation suddenly stopped.


    ¡¯No more ammunition?¡¯ Saul held his breath of relief in.


    Something began running straight toward Z, the sounds of its strange footsteps echoing down the halls.


    They were nearing the exit, just a few more steps before they were basked in light.


    Z only had his longsword, Saul pushed his brother to safety and raised his shield, bracing himself for whatever wasing.


    The footsteps neared close before stopping, using its momentum, the monster had jumped up and used its whole weight to dropkick Saul, his shield blocked the brunt of the unexpected attack, which he had no way of knowing was actually dropkick but his arm behind the shield still ached.


    Groaning in pain, he was thrown in the light as well.


    He expected an inhumane horror toe rushing out of the darkness, to pin him to the ground and drive something straight into his throat.


    He only heard the sound of retreating footsteps and a loud, cking noise, like a bear trap biting shut on nothing.


    "Ah¡­ What the hell was that?" he spoke aloud with a smile on his face, his heart had really begun racing back there.


    But both of them were fine in the end, Saul felt like something was off with his shield-holding arm, Z was starting to believe he had received one too many bricks to the head.


    They would both undoubtedly still need some time to recuperate from all of this, but they were alive and well, it was all that mattered.


    "Urgh¡­ I am never going to another dungeon ever again" Z spoke as they both stepped outside, breathing the fresh air of the night.


    "You said it" the two stumbled away under the moonlight, unaware that they were being watched.


    Loimos had concluded that the peopleing to the dungeon weren¡¯t adequate targets for the current him.


    He was going to aim lower.

 Chapter 31: Sadness Etched

    "Hey boys! You look messed up today" an old man with his back hunched over walked up to the two brothers.


    "Mister David¡­ Still up at this hour?" Z was the one to respond first, his head still aching from the repeated beating he had received just about ten minutes ago.


    "The night falls quickly, and I am still trying to convince Milo to marry Helena, it takes hours to get anywhere with this" the elderughed heartily.


    "But seriously, what happened?" he stopped as quickly as he started, the two brothers were truly looking deplorable.


    The duo exined what they had been up to, they and David exchanged a few more words after that but quickly went on their ways to goy down their bruised bodies.


    Old man David looked around, when he hade out to greet the two brothers, he could have sworn to have seen a third person in the distance, they weren¡¯t showing up however, so he just shrugged his shoulders and assumed that it was just his imagination.


    He headed back into his humble home, a ratherrge home inparison to the rest that could be found in the maze-like vige surrounding the city of Throdqdmond, but still quitecking in all that mattered for a house.


    It used to be a barn after all.


    David failed to see the skeletal figure creeping from behind a tree, Loimos had been mere meters away from him.


    Blissfully unaware, he retreated back into the safety of his home, watched the entire time but not followed as the undead turned his attention to a shed ced opposite to the entrance the man had just gone through.


    The old man sat down at a table, were a well-built young man, dressed in a typical shirt most peasants like them wore around the whole year, it was impossible to tell whether it was discoloured or not, if it was supposed to be disproportionate or if it had simply been worn for too long.


    One thing was certain, one with smooth skin wouldn¡¯t be able to wear this without itching terribly.


    "So, Milo, where were we?" David spoke casually, as though they hadn¡¯t had this exact same conversation hundreds of times, like they hadn¡¯t gone over it a few minutes ago.


    "Mister David, I won¡¯t marry your daughter, I don¡¯t even know her! How will you even convince her? She is literate, an apprentice schr and a mage! I seriously don¡¯t understand why you want that to happen!" like many times before, Milo formed a perfectly logical argument.


    It was only natural that a mere peasant like him shouldn¡¯t mingle with someone of such talent, even if he shared what was pretty much a father-son rtionship with David, that didn¡¯t seem proper.


    "I don¡¯t want her to end up with a snobby noble, you are a good kid Milo and I assure you, you two will hit off just right-" David was also capable of using logic unfortunately, it was a simple tool even barely educated farmers like them could wield with lethality.


    As he was making use of it however, both him and Milo heard something falling off with strength outside.


    Both recognised this sound, it wasn¡¯t the first time a robber tried to break into the shed outside.


    David grabbed a pickaxe leaned over on a wall whilst Milo grabbed a pitchfork.


    They stepped outside and watched the shed from afar, no sign of someone running off into the night, no more sound, the moonlight shone brightly.


    Something else fell in the shed, this thief was quite the daring one it seemed.


    David shouted at them to get the hell away, not truly wanting to cave their head in with his pickaxe, though they would better not try him.


    "I don¡¯t think they care" Milo remarked aloud, after that other object fell heavily, the robber continued to search through the shed, rustling and shuffling things around without even stopping or slowing down as they were told to go away.


    The two of them looked at one another, definitely not wanting to approach the dark interior of the shed when there was seemingly a fearless man inside.


    A few more moments passed and soon enough, a figure stepped out of the shed, both David and Milo stepped back preemptively despite already being a considerable distance away.


    The robber looked at the two living before him.


    Loimos had found exactly what he needed inside of there.


    He looked nothing like a thief, by digging through all of the random stuff packed up inside of there, he had found boots, pants, a shirt and a dark mantle, which was closed with buttons and was so long that it reached just above his ankles.


    He had put on more than a singleyer of clothes and grew rot all over his body to give the impression that it was indeed a person under all of this.


    Gloves tied to his arms with ropes and strings so that they wouldn¡¯t slip away and reveal his true self.


    As for the head, the mantle didn¡¯t have a hood attached so Loimos settled for an old, white and dusty potato bag, it was quite the huge sack, it wouldn¡¯t be ripped off his skull easily.


    He had cut two holes for his eyes, his dead senses didn¡¯t allow him to see right through solid objects after all, he would still be able to manoeuvre using his undead senses and other extra senses, but the holes served to indicate that it was just a man beneath the mask.


    Though, the way he had cut the bag open, it gave the impression that his ¡¯face¡¯ was permanently stuck in a sad expression.


    He tried to mimic breathing using false organs made of rot but it wasn¡¯t very convincing just yet, no matter however, the old man and youth in front of him weren¡¯t paying attention to that, nor were they attentive enough to notice that his fake breathing waspletely wrong.


    The two were not only taken aback by his appearance and rather tall stature, but also by the fact that he had taken something other than clothes from the shed, in fact, from their perspective, it seemed like the so-called ¡¯thief¡¯ had gone in and only came out with a machete.


    Certainly, the two living were starting to believe that he wasn¡¯t after money or goods.


    The three stood at a standstill for a mere second before Loimos simply turned and walked away,pletely ignoring them.


    Neither of them felt like confronting him and so, they allowed him to disappear in the darkness of a nearby field of corn.

 Chapter 32: Prowl

    Unbeknownst to the two frightened livings, Loimos watched them retreat into their homes before turning his attention to one of the many darkened farms.


    He could tell which were inhabited at the moment and which were empty, most were rich with multiple sources of life, some dwindling, some flourishing, some stable.


    They were all living still.


    The vast fields Loimos had encountered on his way there were vibrant with life, the sheer variety of crops was quite surprising, some even seemed to be cultivating flowers or trees, the expanse of the farnds reached beyond his undead sight.


    His dead mind went to work as he looked over his surroundings, prowling the fields and the outside of the farms, looking through a window, which was nothing more than a small hole in the wall.


    He could see slumbering younglings, if his arms were just a little bit longer¡­


    No matter, it was clear to him that agriculture was a big deal wherever he was now, probably much bigger than adventuring or any other profession, the living conditions of the farmers didn¡¯t tarnish his view, they had importance, even if they failed to take advantage of their positions, that didn¡¯t change.


    ying farmers would certainly result in the fields they watched over to be overtaken by another, if he started to kill too many, hysteria would settle in.


    Loimos didn¡¯t want the living to start going haywire by touching something of such importance, at least, not so soon.


    Instead, the undead, headed deeper, further from the fields and into the inner part of the vige, perhaps calling it a vige wasn¡¯t correct, it wasrge, it seemed like many viges had merged together.


    They had probably all flocked toward whatid in the center, a city, with stone walls and guards positioned above, although theycked attentiveness.


    The guards seemed well-equipped, perhaps better equipped than the adventurers he had met, but they were definitely less perceptive, and they seemed to only patrol the city, not the vige.


    Whilst it appeared like the vige stretched as far as the fields did, it wasn¡¯t the case, some patches were left uninhabited and the farther he moved from the city, the more habitations he found that were abandoned, until what could have qualified as a prosperous vige were left deserted.


    Though, some people still lived amidst those forsaken habitations, unwanteds, criminals in hiding and simply elders that had never left their homes.


    Seemed like some of those ces hadn¡¯t been abandoned for nearly as long as it might appear.


    It was a good ce to start doing some work on the poption, Loimos stepped out of the darkness of a crumbled house, which had been made with sturdy rocks, a clear sign of the wealth of the former upants.


    Leaning against the old home of a small bourgeoisie was a crippled middle-aged man, his legs swollen and blistered, he could definitely still walk, but not without great strain and pain.


    Without any hesitation, as soon as he appeared under the moonlight, he grabbed the man by the top and his head, driving the weathered machete straight into the side of his neck, twisting and shaking the de in the wound, producing a sickly cracking noise as he separated two vertebrae.


    Ripping the weapon out, he left the not quite decapitated body of the man spurting blood right where it was, he hadn¡¯t even made a noise, it was night time after all, he had been sleeping soundly.


    Walking up to the other side of the street, if anyone had seen what had happened, they would have questioned their own sight, for no one could be so casual after butchering a man like this.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t leaving the crime scene, he was heading toward a new one, there, a leper was not sleeping, but definitely out of it, the undead positioned himself in front of him, aiming his next sh with care, he shed right through his throat and watched him bleed out until he was dead for good.


    Turning his head to the side, Loimos locked eyes with a man that had the closest appearance someone could have to a rat whilst still beingpletely human.


    A cold sweat traced his balding head as he and the undead stood about ten meters away from one another.


    "S¡¯rry sir¡­ Didn¡¯t mean to intrude¡­" he rose his hands and began running away, quite impressive speed right there.


    Loimos didn¡¯t bother to run after this random criminal that couldn¡¯t even handle the sight of a few dead bodies and locked in on the next beggar in sight.


    Judging by what the system was shoving in his sight, those ¡¯humans¡¯ were worth quite a lot of XP, worth more than that Stolgob, despite the goblin certainly being stronger and more capable than those defenceless people.


    He could feel his death force growing deeper by the kill.


    He had cleaned up the surroundings of all the easy prey, not one of them had had a strong enough survival instinct to notice the looming danger, or perhaps Loimos was simply that much more stealthy.


    He walked down a moderately wide street, the ground beneath his feet had been nothing but dirt, for it had been overtaken by grass that almost reached up to his knees.


    It was understandable why they all chose to pass out here, the ground must have been quite soft.


    Loimos wandered through the ghost towns, sometimesing upon a living that he could ughter, be they a person, an animal or even just an insect.


    The night became day, but the atmosphere didn¡¯t change much in these abandoned parts, Loimos kept on prowling for multiple days and nights, of course, no guards or such ever came to investigate the death of the people he had butchered, no one knew, nor cared about them and the sole witness was nothing more than a lowly criminal that couldn¡¯t even show his face in public without being thrown into a cell.


    Though, there were still people willing to get in his ways.


    Bandits, some of the beggars and cripples probably had some dealings with must have taken his actions as some sort of provocation, and finding him wasn¡¯t exactly difficult, since Loimos hadn¡¯t been hiding himself, it wasn¡¯t like the typical dwellers of the surroundings could run away from him.


    "Now, who the hell are you working for?" another bald man, but much bulkier, asked him with a tone that was somewhat threatening.

 Chapter 33: Amidst The Ruins

    "..." silence encroached them all as they waited for a response from Loimos, who just stood there motionlessly, his fake breathing had gotten a bit more convincing, but still looked somewhat off, only contributing further to the feeling of uneasiness he casted upon the three bandits.


    Standing on each side of the wide-shouldered bald man, where somewhat emaciated men, the three of them didn¡¯t appear to eat as much as they should.


    On his right, the other bald man Loimos had encountered before, he remained a bit further than the rest, seemingly trying to hide behind therger man but also attempting not to make it too obvious that he was scared.


    It was obvious.


    The third man, the one on the left, was blessed with a head full of hair, unlike the other two who sported swords of questionable durability, he also enjoyed the joy of a ranged weapon in the form of a bow and a few arrows.


    Loimos only counted five, five shots wasn¡¯t a lot, especially when piercing damage was hardly effective against him.


    Though he would probably be shooting in a straight line unlike the crossbow wielder fromst time.


    "Boss, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to respond¡­" the frightened one shook in his boots as he demonstrated his superior intelligence, or not.


    "Listen you, you better answer or else, we¡¯ll be breaking your legs" he nudged the man with the bow and the man understood that he was supposed to get ready to shoot, he got into position to send an arrow flying at any given time.


    His target, the stomach, wasn¡¯t lethal but would hurt and bleed like hell.


    "..."


    "Hum, perhaps this is one of Aliz¨¦¡¯s hunting dogs?" the smaller bald one did in fact have a good head on his shoulders, for now.


    "Aliz¨¦? By the ever-living gods! Those bitches think they can unleash their crap on our turf?!" the apparent leader of the group seethed, his bald head turning red as veins popped out.


    "Come on man, don¡¯t speak too loudly, the bitches can make us their bitches, I am not into getting beaten up by a woman, like, at all" the one with the bow turned his head to speak, as he gave his sentiment on the situation, Loimos fluidly ran off into a tight alley in between two ruined houses.


    The three bandits were stunned for a second, the smoothness was simply too slick for them to register for a second.


    "Do-" the scared rat of a man tried to speak up.


    "Fuck it! Kill him!" the leader wasn¡¯t about to let some weirdo in a mask ughter his people, no matter how messed up they may be, no matter who had sent him, he couldn¡¯t allow others to walk all over him, this ce belonged to him!


    His two coborators weren¡¯t thrilled by the concept of pursuing this creepy dude into the confusing ruins, but they still followed suit without hesitation.


    Manoeuvring the overgrown alleys, which were filled with sharp pieces of wood and protruding rocks, both hidden under the tall grass wasn¡¯t a simple affair, the three were used to them but chasing someone through them wasn¡¯t the same deal as walking through.


    "Damn, he¡¯s fast¡­" the one with the bow panted, none of them could give chase for too long.


    Loimos had no stamina to worry about and was constantly sprinting at full speed, so he lost them in no time.


    "He surely has to stop and recuperate at some point, any clue where he went?" the boss and his two goons stepped into a small clearing, meaning a ce where there were no ruins and only vegetation.


    In the center of all that grass, an old well, pretty much intact unlike the rest, was standing tall, to the right of the clearing however, was the most surprising sight.


    Arge, ss window which most likely used to give customers sight upon wonders was now leftpletely dirty, but still somehow intact.


    Amongst the plethora of ghost towns and deserted viges, this ce was one that didn¡¯t see many visitors, if at all.


    It made no doubt that youngsters that came to challenge themselves here would have broken it for fun and giggles.


    The well and that window were what attracted the gazes of the three, the boss carefully approached the well, imagining that the sack-headed man could be hiding inside, holding onto the sides.


    The one with the bow put his hand on his sheathed dagger and carefully approached the window, it was quite the attractive ce, perhaps their runaway had headed into this building.


    As the rat-faced man, he had just stood there unable to decide what to do, simply deciding to keep an eye on his fellows¡¯s backs.


    He gasped as he heard some stepping with strength behind him, turning around with a jittery hold on his sword, he only a close-up on a rock as Loimos smashed it into his face as he ran past him.


    The true danger the group posed was the big bald man, he struck the weakest of them before he could shout and rushed toward the boss, who soon realised that someone wasing from him.


    He reflexively turned and blindly blocked with his de, which was of no use, he had been toote, his attention hadn¡¯t been on the right ce.


    Indeed, he had been looking down into the well, which wasn¡¯t awfully deep but still gave him a bit of a scare, imagining himself falling head first down there.


    He had been taken aback and forced into thinking as he noticed the machete Loimos had been holding before at the bottom of the well, the handle buried into the ground, the de pointed upward.


    ¡¯How the hell did he have the time to do that?¡¯ the man could only wonder, of course, he was thinking as if Loimos was a person, maybe a bit psychotic, but a person nheless.


    He couldn¡¯t imagine that the undead had thrown himself down there and climbed back up like a nightmarish terror from the depth of darkness, those weren¡¯t things people did.


    The boss was simply toote and was tackled right into the well, plunging right toward the machete as Loimos was already running for his next target.

 Chapter 34: Slugfest

    The bandit wielding the bow, unlike his boss had ample time to see Loimosing, he slightly trembled, quickly realising that his two allies weren¡¯t going to be helping him right at this moment.


    One down into a well and the other still reeling from a powerful blow right to the face, he was already in position to shoot.


    Letting go of the string, his first arrow reached its mark, plunging right in the assants chest, into where his right lung should be, without thinking, he readied another arrow, only noticing that Loimos hadn¡¯t slowed down at all from the first.


    He shot again, his aim was somewhat thrown off by the shock but it was actually beneficial, not being an expert bowman, he always aimed for the chest since this was the easiest ce to consistently hit.


    Thanks to being distracted by surprise, the next one lodge went right for the head, unfortunately not piercing it, only striking the side of the head as it went past Loimos.


    Still, it should have sorted his thoughts and yet, to the bandit¡¯s horror, he didn¡¯t slow down.


    Loimos expanded his arms and took hold of the man as he ran right into him, propelling the two of them right through the filthy window.


    It exploded into a shower of sharp shards, the two didn¡¯tnd on the ground of the supposed shop, instead rolling over on a table.


    The bandit managed to throw Loimos away, sending him flying further against the counter, hitting the back of his skull against the side of it.


    The legs of the table broke mere momentster, sending the man rolling right onto the carpets of shards, earning a pained cry from him.


    He didn¡¯t feel like moving or doing anything at all right now, but from the corner of his eyes, he could see Loimos standing back up like nothing.


    "Ah! You motherfucker, are you on some drugs or something?! You¡¯ve got a hole in your lung, get the fuck away from here!" he cursed loudly as he ignored the pain, pulled out a shard stabbed in his nose and spat on the ground.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t impressed by his attempt at cutting this fight short and simply began walking toward him.


    The two were in a confined space now, and it should be a given that the bandit wasn¡¯t going to stand idly like before when he now knew what sort of hijinks Loimos was willing to pull to murder him.


    The bandit had certainly never imagined that his opponent would put himself in harm¡¯s way like he had just done.


    ¡¯I lost my bow¡­ And my arrows went flying everywhere¡­¡¯ the bandit took hold of his dagger, it had thankfully not been flung away in the struggle.


    He inspected his surroundings, but apart from the destroyed table, a bunch of sharp shards and the counter, this ce was barren of anything much.


    The two doors he could see were boarded up too, leaving only the window as an exit, but big shards were still stuck on the extremities, he wasn¡¯t confident that he would be able to leap through without getting himself stuck.


    "You guys better hurry the hell up!" he shouted as loudly as he could.


    At least one of hispanions should be capable of doing something, he may have been slugged in the face, but that had probably not knocked him out.


    Loimos kicked up some shards right at the bandit¡¯s face, shielding his eyes and closing his mouth, he still swung his dagger.


    Feeling the de sink into something, he smiled until he moved his other arms from in front of his eyes.


    "Goddamn freak-!" he was interrupted as Loimos punched him in the ribs.


    He reciprocated by repeatedly striking Loimos in the face but it wasn¡¯t doing much, it felt somehow mushy.


    The bandit had indeed managed to stab Loimos, but only on the undead¡¯s terms, the dagger had sunk into the skeleton¡¯s palm, he had grabbed the bandit¡¯s hand, locking them both in ce where they could only beat each other up without any sort of finesse.


    A true slugfest.


    The bowman was a dirty fighter, he tried to kick his foe in the crotch, only to be rmed by theck of response, in fact, his leg was locked in ce, putting him in a less than ideal situation.


    Using this moment of inattention, Loimos poked the bandits¡¯s eyes, not quite enough to blind him forever, but just enough to draw blood and give him a taste of what death looked like.


    He instinctively tried to pull back, Loimos leaned forward, sending the man right to the ground, where all the shards were.


    He mmed down with even greater force than before, the shards that were already stuck in his flesh and cloth sunk deeper as new ones joined the party.


    The bandit was in no state to fight back any longer, Loimos let go of his legs, wrenched the dagger out of his grip, pulled it out of his hand and shove it right into his throat, gave it a good twist before ripping it right out, blood gushed everywhere as the undead stood right back up.


    Right in time to get shot in the neck, the rat had recuperated from his daze and wanted to fight.


    "Ya bastard! I¡¯ll gut you lik¡¯a pig!" it seemed like something was angering the feeble, little man.


    He dropped the bow that he had picked up without questioning why on earth Loimos was unfazed and used his sword to get the protruding, sharp ss at the bottom of the window frame out of the way before jumping in.


    The rat sweeped at Loimos¡¯s legs, forcing the skeleton to move back until he reached the counter.


    He acted as though he hadn¡¯t known exactly when he was going to reach it, prompting the mad bandit to go for a powerful sh, Loimos leaned his back on the counter and reached for something he had noticed to be there back when he had been flung right against the counter.


    It was nothing much, just a singr wooden cup, tavern drunkards were most familiar with them, and although the rat couldn¡¯t handle much alcohol, he recognised the object for what it was quickly.


    ¡¯What is he-?!¡¯ the bandit was left stumped for an instant, he could only think of two uses for the cup, blocking an attack or using it for attacking.


    He focused his attention on the newly arrived object, which Loimos did nothing more than letting go of it the instant he showed it.


    It was but a mere distraction, just to make sure the rat wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge the dagger Loimos stabbed right through his open mouth.

 Chapter 35: Bled

    Driving the de into his mouth, the taste of iron invaded the bandit¡¯s gullet in more ways than one, he could feel his teeth shifting position as the de stuck itself in between them, the strange pain as his tongue was nearly split in half, the horrendous feeling as the de reached to far it made him feel like puking.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t interested in causing pain, he quickly retrieved the dagger and shed the man¡¯s throat for good measure.


    It didn¡¯t seem like the rat was feeling like dying, he grabbed onto Loimos¡¯s leg as the undead tried to move on to his next victim.


    Striking the struggling living in the forehead with the end of the handle, he knocked the man to the ground and repeatedly stomped on his face, until only mush remained.


    A leaking source of life force was rushing toward him, Loimos barely had time to turn and face it, a fist was already striking him straight in the chest.


    ¡¯That punch is not typical¡¯ he coldly noted before his body was sent right through the wall, his sprawled, lifeless body thrown so hard that he bounced against the ground and went right through an old wooden door,nding him in the former dinner room of a peasant family.


    Clicking his limbs back in ce, the dagger had been lost as some of his fingers went out of ce, he stood up and looked through the smashed open door of the house he had found himself in at the bandit leader.


    His fall in the well, onto a machete hadn¡¯t been fatal, Loimos had known that since he had felt his life force the entire time, what wasn¡¯t expected was this sudden surge of power the bald man was experiencing.


    Certainly, Loimos was aware that some living experienced greater feats of strength and resilience in the face of death.


    Certainly, this applied to the man, for he had in factnded on the machete, the side of his body was bleeding profusely at this very instant, the color of his skin was ever so slightly paler than before.


    But that punch wasn¡¯t a result of that, it was a second, invisible force that had struck him at the same time this man¡¯s fist did.


    Having witnessed mana woven into magic, Loimos could tell that this wasn¡¯t it.


    ¡¯A system skill¡¯ he concluded as he ever so casually grabbed a whitered piece of wood lying on the table, perhaps it had been a te once, it was of now real importance.


    Not only was the leader¡¯s adrenaline rush wearing off, his body was slowly shutting down from blood loss, his life force was also steadily vanishing at this very instant.


    Why exchange blows and fight? This man was going to die on his own, Loimos¡¯s ploy had already killed him.


    He threw the piece of wood at the man and ran off into the darkness of the house


    "Come back here you coward!" it was riching from the guy that hade with reinforcements from the get-go, but it was understandable why he could be feeling aggravated at the moment.


    In any case, the bandit leader gave chase without caring for his state, he probably shouldn¡¯t have yoinked the machete out of his wound, but it was all done in the heat of the moment, the fact that he hadn¡¯t been feeling any pain at the moment had also been a major factor.


    Now that it was all steadily going away, he could feel even greater exhaustion creeping up on him.


    Recing the thoughts of his impending death with some for vengeance upon Loimos, he stepped into the home.


    Unlike the old store, it wasn¡¯t well lit, flooded with darkness in fact.


    Swinging his sword like a lunatic at any piece of furniture that remained, the leader expected the cockroach to appear from the darkness at any moment, he moved fast, feeling himself grow weaker and weaker by the seconds.


    "Coward!" he shouted again as he reached a dead end, or rather, he reached a small window, Loimos could only have gone there, meaning that he had escaped.


    The bandit boss tried to spin around and go on the hunt but he only felt his knees wobble, soon enough, his back was against the wall as he slumped down.


    In this abandoned home, he was going to bleed out and die like he lived, as a nobody.


    Light shone from the small window onto his face, its warmth was quite soothing, but not enough to allow him to forget what awaited him.


    A shadow was cast over as something got in the way of the light, the weakened bandit couldn¡¯t even muster the strength to raise one arm as he sat in a pool of his own, warm blood.


    Loimos slithered right back into the room, walked up to the man and took his sword from him.


    cing the edge against the top of his head Loimos raised the de, bringing it down brutally and splitting this living¡¯s skull in half.


    Leaving it stuck in his body for the time being, the undead grabbed the brawny man¡¯s body by the feet and began dragging him away, leaving a trail of blood as he went, Loimos brought him back to the well and chucked his body in.


    Repeating this action with the other two as well, Loimos made sure to strip them of any of their belongings as well, forming a small pile next to the well.


    Climbing down himself, it was as good of a time as any to try something, now that he had yed quite a lot of people, including three bandits capable of actually defending themselves in some capacity.


    His rather easy victory could be attributed to the fact that they had been fighting him as though he was just another person, had he actually been a human like them, it wouldn¡¯t have gone so well.


    The hits he had endured would have been enough to crack his bones without the protection of his rot and clothes wrapped around him.


    It was of no importance now, he tried to manifest his rot powers in a way, not to produce more rot or a miasma generator, but simply to elerate the decay of their bodies.


    Loimos didn¡¯t pay attention to the passage of the days as he tested this.

 Chapter 36: Attic

    A young woman yawned and raised her hand to stop the aggressive sunlight of the early morning to blind her as he stepped out of her small home, neither far from the farnds, nor far from the city, she lived where the houses were beginning to grow closer and closer to one another.


    The street was wide enough for carriages to get through unimpaired, that was an advantage of leaving right next to the main way to the city, your neighbours didn¡¯t have a perfect view of what was going on in your own home.


    She looked to the right, hearing the sound of other people stepping out of their homes to go to work, some worked as farmhands, whilst others did whatever was avable in the city, they always needed arms for construction over there.


    She looked to the left and was left confused for an instant.


    Sighing, she moved toward the person sprawled on the ground, they weren¡¯t passed out, she could see them moving.


    "Partied too hardst night, heh?" she spoke with an unrefined ent, trying to get a look at who it was, she knew quite a lot of people¡¯s faces and her memory of names was pristine, allowing her to carry conversations with pretty much anyone.


    The woman recognised the middle-aged man but stepped back as soon as she got a good look at his face.


    Her scream forced everyone awake.


    At a nce, it might seem like nothing was wrong with the man, he may seem a bit unkempt but he was known to work at a nearby farm, so it was more-so a sign that he was a hard worker.


    One simply needed to do just like the young woman and look at his face.


    His mouth and nostrils were sealed shut, in quite the gruesome manner at that, sewn haphazardly and with much violence taking ce beforehand, his face had been beaten ck and blue, enough to allow his aggressor to stuff his mouth with rocks and hay.


    By the time peopleposed themselves, the minuscule amount of life he still had in him by the start had already gone out, leaving only a still warm body in the middle of the street.


    "Will somebody go call the guards?!" someone with a better head on their shoulders than the rest finally spoke up, otherwise they would have all just stood around with mildly concerned expressions for a while.


    "Dear gods, how could this happen?" a man with a thick beard and mustache spoke to himself as he looked from a distance, just barely stepping out of his own house.


    Something attracted his attention in the opposite direction from the dead body, turning his head with a:


    "Mmh?"


    He could only see the sad eyes on the bag staring right at him as something cold pierced his throat.


    One couldn¡¯t fathom what could happen in broad daylight, as people could see, it only needed to be fast and inconspicuous in execution.


    Loimos had walked out from a narrow alley as though it was the most normal thing in the world, as long as it appeared like he belonged here, the few people that may have noticed his dark figure from the corner of their eyes ignored him.


    Quickly silencing the man by stabbing him in the throat, he pushed him back into his own house and closed the door behind him, letting the already condemned man bleed out on the floor, the undead walked with a faster step to intercept the person he could feel was going to enter the room he was in.


    It was but the home of peasants, a father, a wife and a few kids at most.


    There were basically only three rooms, two bedrooms and another that served as both the kitchen and dining room.


    Living rooms were a term only the more wealthy knew, those of lesser fortune wouldugh at such poor usage of space.


    "Honey-" Loimos was already standing in her way, grabbing her wrist to get it out of the way, he also shoved his de into her throat, pulling and throwing her to the ground, he seamlessly transitioned from murder to movement as he headed for thest room.


    The three livings in there didn¡¯t pose any problem, only one was awake and he couldn¡¯t even get a noise out at the mere sight of Loimos.


    The whole venture only took him two minutes at most, he stepped right out of the house the same way he came in, covered in blood, but at this point, he wasn¡¯t within anyone¡¯s sight as they had all gathered around the body.


    As though it was an attraction, it truly was a wonder how the living could be both so fascinated and also so afraid of death, Loimos didn¡¯t question the discrepancy in behaviour and walked away in the main street.


    He broke into a few more homes along the way, mostly because they just happened to make the fatal mistake of opening their doors when Loimos was in the perimeter, they couldn¡¯t even start to question his weird appearance before he was already stabbing them.


    Though some proved to be morepetent as they just shut their door at his sight, he was covered in blood at this point after all, it was otherwise more rming than wearing a potato sack on your head.


    The dark coat mostly concealed blood stains, but the rest of his clothing wasn¡¯t so dark.


    The bag was already starting to take on a darker shade.


    Loimos arrived before a farm, unlike the majority of the dwellers the other way, those that took care of the farm and pretty much owned them had already been up for a while, they were already well aware of their surroundings and not groggy.


    Not to mention, Loimos had noticed that they seemed otherwise more brawny and willing to cave someone¡¯s head in for a slight transgression.


    Apletely different breed in sum.


    The skeleton climbed up the side of the farm, crawling through a gap in the roof, making his way in an attic filled to the brim with random stuff, cobwebs and dust.


    Heid down, face against the ground and stopped moving, simply staring through the small gaps in the floor.

 Chapter 37: Helena

    "Well, would you look at that, what a coincidence" old man David tapped on Milo¡¯s shoulders.


    There were no coincidences.


    Milo would have liked to just sink into the ground and disappear right at this instant, just teleport at the top of a mountain and be left by himself.


    David¡¯s daughter, Helena was standing right there, the old scourge must have asked her toe from the city.


    Milo had always thought that she was too busy with her schr and mage sses and that thus, that he would never actually get to meet her.


    ¡¯Oh no, she¡¯s hot!¡¯ Milo tried backing away, right out of the room but David had already taken out the exits.


    Milo had to admit, he had a hard time believing this was the old man¡¯s daughter, not only did he must have already been old when she was conceived, he had clearly partook in her creation with a woman way above what he should be able to achieve.


    The young man rubbed his chin in thought, maybe she was also adopted.


    Lost in thought, he turned and actually looked at Helena, who seemed simrly bothered by her father¡¯s antics.


    She had long brown hair, a somewhat simr colour to that of Milo¡¯s but that was to be expected since it was the mostmon hair colour around.


    Though her eyes were a gorgeous dark blue, which was definitely notmon at all, Milo had never seen that before.


    Wearing a long and neat dress, as well as a hat that Milo could only describe as silly looking, she was inplete antithesis with the inside of the barn turned house, even though she had used to live there in her younger years.


    "You must be Milo" she extended her hand toward him and he instinctively shook it, David cheered in the background at this casual greeting.


    He had expected her hands to be all soft but they were simrly calloused to his, she had still spent most of her youth working at the farm after all, in fact, Milo was realising that she had pretty big hands for a girl.


    In fact, now that he was just in front of her, he was realising that she was taller than him.


    And her handshake grip was pretty strong actually¡­


    ¡¯Huh¡¯


    ¡¯Why in damnation did he not mention that his daughter was like this?!¡¯ Milo thought as he turned to the old man.


    It would have made everything so much simpler, to hell with the schr and mage stuff!


    Milo would have been instantly sold had he mentioned that!


    He took a few steps back and calmed down, it seemed like something had just awakened in him, and he wasn¡¯t fighting it.


    "Yes, your father spoke a lot about you Helena, but I see that he wasn¡¯t very honest, you are much prettier than he described"


    ¡¯Smooth¡¯ Milo thought.


    ¡¯Not bad kid¡¯ David shrunk back in a corner, seemed like he had seeded in getting Milo on board with his superb idea, now he just needed to see if Helena was simrly interested.


    "Do you have rats in the attic?" much to everyone¡¯s disappointment, she instead looked up at the ceiling.


    "No, there hasn¡¯t been anything up there for a while, not even a marten or anything¡­" Milo looked up at the ceiling too "Why do you ask?"


    "There¡¯s some weird mana fluctuations up there, like something odd was there for a while, by the way dad, are you not worried about the strings of murder recently? It has already been a week since it started and there hasn¡¯t been a single day without victims" Helena didn¡¯t show it on her face, but it was clear in her tone that she was worried.


    "Bah, nothing more than a lunatic on the loose, I would like to see hime here!" David, much like most farmers, wasn¡¯t afraid of this guy, despite the fact that the killer¡¯s kill count was already racking up in the dozens.


    "The people that were living on the outskirts, in the old towns have also all vanished, I heard that the guards found a well filled with corpses, some having already been decaying for a while they said" unlike farmers like her father and Milo, Helena was more keenly aware of XP and of the workings of the system.


    She knew very well that even a regr person, after ughtering so many people, would have umted much enough strength to be a threat to even the strongest of men outside the city.


    It wouldn¡¯t be farfetched to say that even guards should be careful and move in at least groups of two at this point.


    "My instructors are busy, I¡¯ll stay for a little while" she didn¡¯t if it was necessary, but she preferred staying close-by, just in case something did happen.


    The attic was also worrying her.


    "Let¡¯s go check what¡¯s up there" she grabbed Milo and he allowed himself to be led around, he was also curious to see what she had been talking about.


    Unfortunately for them, nothing was to be seen within the attic, in fact, the cobwebs indicated that nothing had disturbed them in a long while, still, Helena could still clearly feel like something was wrong, like something had been missing.


    It was like an object had beenying somewhere around here and preventing mana from moving on its position, and only now that it was gone was the ambient mana allowed to move freely.


    "That reminds me of the man that stole a machete, not too long before the murder started actually" Milo had almost forgotten about this event, but now he felt like he should perhaps speak to a guard about it.


    Him and Helena began speaking about it, not realising that they had missed Loimos by barely a minute.


    Night was falling and he was going on the prowl once more, this time, heading in the opposite direction from the habitations and the city, heading toward a still illuminated and loud building.


    Like on most other constructions, the windows were no more than small openings for the most part, if they were actuallyrge, they had already been shut with ps.

 Chapter 38: Scarecrow

    Standing in front of the tavern, Loimos didn¡¯t simply step in and instead turned to the wheat field facing the lonely building filled to the brim with drunkards, walking through the golden ntation, he arrived before a scarecrow.


    Taking it down from its wooden support, he threw it further into the field and hoisted himself up in its ce, granting him a perfect view of the tavern, and also hiding him in in sight.


    Though that would have worked pretty well, it wasn¡¯t necessary, tonight was a dark night, the people inside, consumed by alcohol would never even be able to make out the shape of the scarecrow.


    Loimos remained in ce for an hour, until a group of three, all of them struggling to even walk properly, walked out of the bustling tavern.


    The three men seemed to be trying to support one another but none of them was even remotely steady in their movements, Loimos stepped down from his spot and made a bee-line for them.


    Retrieving a dagger from the inside of his coat, he approached with silent steps, standing awfully close to them.


    There was no breathing for them to feel on their necks as Loimos assessed the situation, waiting for the perfect asion to strike.


    Raising up his dagger, he targeted the one in the middle.


    He wanted them to be confused for a moment to make the whole thing smoother, but their reaction with their friend just slumped down would be unpredictable, he wanted the one he was going to strike not to die instantly and keep his grasp on the other two.


    As a skeleton, he knew exactly where to strike to avoid hitting a rib, his de went right through the unsuspecting man¡¯s back, the point of the de ending its course as it pierced his right lung.


    The force of the strike drove the air out of his other lung, in spite of the pain, all he could do was mutter a weak gasp, a mere exhale that meant nothing.


    He lost strength in his knees and fell forward, the other two almost got carried along with him but caught themselves,ughing at their friend for almost falling on his face, they held no doubts in their hearts.


    Up until Loimos quickly stabbed one in the throat and then grabbed the other into a choke hold before driving the dagger through the top of his head.


    The undead put his feet against the man¡¯s head to get his de back, but realised that his recent acts of ughter had worn the de out significantly, getting right through someone¡¯s skull had been the tipping point as most of the de remained stuck in.


    He rubbed the blood of what remained of the dagger on his sleeve and still put it back in his coat, it was still plenty enough to cut someone with.


    Loimos dragged the one he had stabbed in the back into the wheat field, this man wasn¡¯t dead yet, he was holding onto his life surprisingly well.


    Not that he could turn things around and escape with his life, Loimos pulled him away with the same ease he could crush the smallest of humans in his palms.


    He brought the dying man to the spot he had been disguising as a scarecrow mere moments ago, Loios fetched the clothes of the strawman, undressed the man and put on those of the inanimate humanoid on him.


    He dispersed what was left of the scarecrow and tucked his victim¡¯s clothes in his coat before cing his body as the new, much more realistic scarecrow.


    It mighte as a surprise for Loimos to bother in such a way, but he had heard the people talking of his murders, most believed it to be the work of one of their own, but some would rather me it on a monster.


    As such, Loimos decided to do something very human-like, and pose a body as if to mock the guards and others trying to catch him.


    At the very least, they shouldn¡¯t expect it to be an undead of all things.


    He left the other two corpses as they were and made his way back toward the farm he had chosen as his hiding spot.


    Before climbing back into the attic through the gap he had found, he crept up to a window and observed the inhabitants inside, specifically the new girl that had arrived and was said to be the offspring of the old man.


    Despite not having any resemnce with one another.


    Loimos had clearly recognised that feeling he had noticed about that adventurer back then, surprisingly enough, he had never felt that with the goblin mage, despite all three of them being of this profession.


    The undead couldn¡¯t quite tell himself, but what he had felt was their mana sense extending over to his position, Eppie hadn¡¯t noticed anything in the dungeon due to theck of ambient mana.


    Helena was not only more skilled than her, but the air outside was much richer with mana, making Loimos¡¯s undead presence much more noticeable to anyone paying attention.


    Mana was rejected from him, creating an empty space, most wouldn¡¯t have paid it any mind, it was something that happened, Helena was overly attentive and worried however.


    Things that she would normally chalked up to nothing were now suspicious urrences that needed investigation, Loimos had seen it y out, how she had clearly noticed him in the attic before he had made his exit.


    She was speaking with that Milo kid right now, if he just broke in right now and attacked her, would he be able to kill her?


    Was he fast enough? Was he strong enough to burst in through the door in an instant?


    Could he be capable of throwing his broken dagger right in the back of her head through this window?


    Should he go back to the attic and wait for her to notice him again, and ambush her once shees to check things out?


    Could any of those work out perfectly?


    Loimos stood still for a few moments, before stepping back into the darkness.

 Chapter 39: Long Nights Coming

    What is an undead? Here is the question me, and many of my colleagues constantly find ourselves asking.


    The simplest answer would be: "Something that is animated, yet does not possess life force"


    That is obviously wrong however, this definition would ssify golems and some spirits as undead, yet, everyone agrees that it isn¡¯t the case.


    No, the more correct definition of an undead would be something animated by death force, something that is by all means, dead and yet, still retains functions normally attributed to the living.


    Now, what is the difference between an undead and something that is simply dead? Whilst corpses create death force, they eventually just stop doing so after a while, undeads do not.


    Or so it generally is, but once again, corpses that just manifest death force without stopping and undeads that don¡¯t produce their own death force exist.


    For example, the mostmon of zombies and skeletons fit into that second category, generally born and fueled by ambient death.


    Now, you are wondering where I am going with this, aren¡¯t you?


    That is but an introduction, I have presented you with two sorts of undeads, those that produce death and those that do not.


    I am simply aiming at putting down on paper the variations of undeads, necromancers shouldn¡¯t dive into the dangerous practice of death magic blind.


    When ites to aspects nearly all beings share with one another, I ssify undeads to fall into three categories regarding each of those aspects:


    -Possess the same as the rest


    -Lack it entirely


    -Possess another version of the aspect, which shall be referred as ¡¯undead¡¯ for simplicity sake-


    Extract of ¡¯Undeads For Dummies: What Is A ¡¯True¡¯ Undead?¡¯ by Ohith of the Underground Tower.


    A somewhat chubby man stood before a small pond, the surface had turned red.


    He held a soft tissue to his mouth and nose as guards pulled out corpses after corpses, each belonging to people living in the viges outside the walls of Throdqdmond, he felt like gagging every time a new one was fished out.


    Each and every one of them was horrendous and disgusting in its own way, some were bloated due being submerged for a long time, others were squirming with worms whilst some were simply disfigured from the brutal ordeal they had gone through before ending up in there.


    The man felt sick, but he was even more furious.


    His name was Harold, and he was the mayor of Throdqdmond, at first, a few peasants dying wasn¡¯t anything to write home about, it was a shame to lose perfectly good manpower but it was what it was.


    Now however, this mysterious killer had begun to attack the farmers and it was equivalent to punching the city¡¯s economy straight in the guts, now that was heresy, this was an attack that couldn¡¯t be forgiven.


    The killer had been active for about a month now, and there rarely was a day during which no blood was spilled, Harold had be convinced that this man was actively trying to ruin this city, for he even attacked the few cattle grazing around.


    Even dogs and cats weren¡¯t safe, as it had be awfullymon to find either of those smashed up in the middle of the main road, merchants and travellers had begun to avoiding through Throdqdmond.


    And it was perfectly understandable, a maniac was on the loose and no one was able to track him down.


    He had seemingly only been seen once, and described as wearing a ¡¯potato sack with sad face on it¡¯.


    Thus, the sad faced man had be the looming shadow of Throdqdmond, whether it was turning people into scarecrows, hanging their bodies around or simply ughtering them and leaving them as is.


    Harold was dreading the day this lunatic decided to upgrade and start prowling the streets of the city itself.


    ¡¯I have already got all adventurers on it, not a single guard isn¡¯t on the lookout for him, why?!¡¯ he sighed heavily and motioned the captain of the guards not so far toe closer.


    "Listen, do not stop anything, continue trying to catch this bastard, but don¡¯t despair alright? I am going to try to get Thomas and others as well" Harold spoke seriously as he spared a nce at yet another body being pulled out of the pond, he felt sick seeing someone so young, and yet, already in the grasp of the grim reaper.


    "Thomas? The- The crusader?" the captain of the guards paled, not because he was afraid of this man, he simply remembered the one time he had been in his presence.


    That seemed¡­ Excessive for a filthy murderer, a warrior as noble as a crusader shouldn¡¯t have to be bothered for such things.


    Yet, he didn¡¯t doubt that he would heed the call.


    "We¡¯ll double our efforts sir!" the man responded and saluted, not wanting the crusader to be bothered with something so measly, he was ignited with a renewed fervour as hemanded some of his men to go on the move.


    "Captain!" just as he did so, one of them came rushing out toward him.


    He nodded, prompting him to exin what was so urgent.


    "The vigers¡­ They are all sick and tired of our¡­ Hum- Ipetence! They are taking things into their own hands¡­" this was only to be expected.


    Loimos had arisen one of the mightiest of forces, the wrath of themon people.


    The undead wasn¡¯t fazed by it however, he watched things unfold from another attic he had crawled into, the folks below him had no idea he was there.


    He listened in on the people outside, he could only hear bits here and there, but it was enough to understand what was happening.


    The peasants and farmers were forming a righteous mob, there was little doubt in Loimos¡¯s mind that they would crush his bones if they caught him, though not everyone was going to rush out into the night with torches and pitchforks.


    Some of them were going to be barricading themselves in their homes, such as the family living right below him at this moment, he could hear them moving furniture around and boarding up windows.


    They had no idea that they were going to be the first.


    The next few nights were going to be long.

 Chapter 40: Sick Freak

    "Those idiots, they are really doing it¡­" a middle aged man with hands swollen from harshbour muttered to himself as he was sitting in a chair facing the blocked off entrance of his own home.


    He couldn¡¯t help but shake his head, to him, trying to hunt down the maniac behind all the murders was only going to result in more casualties, he firmly believed that no simple man could massacre so many people.


    Men, women, and the children too, even the vilest of people tended to have limits, this one did not, a savage beast in the form a man is all he was.


    The man¡¯s house was situated in between the farms and the small habitations nearing the city, he had lucked out and managed to get a two-stories home for his family, the only thing he had feared until this had all started were the taxes he had to pay to the ¡¯local¡¯ lord.


    Humbled worker that he was, with a wife and three children, soon one more toe, it had really been his only enemy.


    Now however, he had to stay guard, worried at every second that the ¡¯sad faced man¡¯ as they called him was going to try and force his way into his house.


    He rubbed his eyes and sighed again, he looked behind him for no particr reason and was faced with the darkness filling the room behind him.


    Whilst it had a floor above, the house itself wasn¡¯t remarkably big, the first floor only had three rooms, a dinner room also serving as kitchen and two cers in which they put either food or misceneous stuff.


    Had he left that door open?


    A question suddenly arose from his mind as he noticed the door of the food cer hanging open, barely peeking out from the ambient darkness.


    He had to have done so, or maybe someone else had forgotten, he tried to reason with himself.


    ¡¯No, we always close it¡¯ he stood up, and moved the chair away, he grabbed a wooden club, it had been in use by his father for dealing with wolves back in the day, but the man still remembered clearly that he could deal with thieves and the likes just as easily.


    ¡¯Just one good hit over the head¡­ If you can¡¯t, just keep hitting until you can¡¯t anymore¡­¡¯ he remembered the wise words of his progenitor, whose brute force had solved a wide array of problems.


    The man tightened his grip and grabbed thentern he had been using as his source of light, the shine it let out was rather dim, it was also a relic after all.


    He approached the cer carefully, expecting a variety of scenarios, all of which involved the sad faced man rushing out from the darkness, so stressed, that he couldn¡¯t even contemte the very real possibility that nothing of such amplitude was at y.


    Normally, he would have simply assumed some animal had just pushed the door open, it wasn¡¯t like it was tightly locked or anything, this thing barely had a door knob after all, a stray gust of wind could have forced it open.


    Only if it hade from inside the cer however.


    The man breathed out heavily, sweating in anticipation of the worst, ready to shatter the skull of anything that could appear, clutching the club andntern so hard his battered hands turned somewhat purple.


    The cer was entirely empty.


    "Ahah" he chuckled to himself for being so paranoid.


    What had he been thinking after all? That the murderer was snuck up behind him and opened the door to the cer? That was simply ridiculous.


    All of the tension began to evacuate his body, only to rush right back in as he heard the floor creak right above him, and then a door being casually shut.


    He quickly stepped over the bottom of the stairs and shouted up:


    "Who was that?" he expected one of his children or his wife to answer him, but no one did, the utter silence of the house suddenly dawned on him, constricting his chest painfully as he once again went into full paranoia.


    The worst possible scenarios going through his head, he rushed up the stairs without any caution and flung the first door he found open.


    "Honey?" his wife wasying on the bed, the nket up to her neck, just as usual.


    He repeated himself as he made his way over to her side, shining the light on her face, she seemed to be peacefully sleeping, yet, she wasn¡¯t waking up.


    Straining his eyes, he couldn¡¯t help but notice that her expression didn¡¯t seem very natural, it was more like someone else had tried to replicate the look of calm slumber, like some sort of demented puppeteer.


    He lifted the nket off of her, many things went through his mind as he nced upon the guts of his loved one, how could this have happened? Whilst he was just on the floor below?


    How could he have not heard any struggle? Any scream? What sort of sick freak would kill someone like this, and then take the time to cover it up, falsify the very expression on her face, all for what?


    A scream whose driving emotion was unclear shook the house, spreading beyond his walls, straight toward the ears of the righteous crowd.


    The man rushed out of the room, his steps were loud, making the entire house creak and wince, kicking the door leading to the room where his three children should be sleeping, thentern shone its light on three beds.


    Two beds, ced as they always were, with two children within that slept as they always did, two pillows on their faces, two chests that did not heave, the dimntern shone, the father watched, his timely arrival©¤toote, a decision had been made, and don¡¯t we all have to go someday?


    Standing over his youngest, thest child of his, there he stood...a man famed for his sad expression, a cut-out potato sack as a figure-head.


    It was then that their gazes met for the first time...and it would be thest.


    "..." he opened his mouth, trying to say something.


    Only a rabid noise came out, dropping thentern he gripped the club with both his hands.

 Chapter 41: Run

    The old home rumbled with fury as the father stepped forward, the floor seemed ready to give in at any moment, but it did not.


    Supporting the thunderous stomp, the man raised the club high above his head, it made no doubt, this hit would carry every single bit of strength avable to him, certain to blow Loimos¡¯s skull apart.


    Grabbing the pillow he had just used to snuff the youngest, he chucked it without much force at the man, whopletely ignored it and kept on charging forward, he was going to m this club down no matter what.


    Watching the approaching attacking from above, it was fast, but not fast enough to catch Loimos by surprise, bending his knees, he used his maximum speed and strength to side step at thest moment whilst simultaneously reaching into his coat.


    The father¡¯s bloodshot eyes were focused on the club, smashed through floorboards, he wanted to pull it back up and swing again, swing and swing until nothing but paste was left of the abject murderer.


    His mouth was filled with blood, a violent stinging from his nape brought him to his knees, sapping the strength from his arms, he fell limply down, the wrath animating him did not die down, but it was reced by the coldness of death.


    The fear.


    Loimos heard the shouts of the mob converging outside as result of the father¡¯s scream, it wouldn¡¯t be long before they began trying to break in.


    Seizing the heavy club from himself, he turned his attention to thentern the man had dropped, it hadn¡¯t been broken by the fall, the me inside was still swirling and dancing.


    Quickly dragging and throwing the corpses in the room into a pile, Loimos pushed the beds together, the legion of peasants were beginning to kick into the barricades.


    Loimos swung thentern at the wooden frame of the bed in the middle, sshing the oil on the sheets, the fire bursted as Loimos stepped away and made his way back into the attic he had crawled out of.


    He waited for a little while, listening to the crowd¡¯s gasps and curses as they realised everything was burning down, they had nothing at hand to even try to contain the mes, their attention waspletely diverted from catching the scorned killer to searching for a solution to stop the mes from spreading to other habitations.


    He slipped through the crack in the roof that he had used as his first entry and stepped out, simply taking a long step onto another nearby house and then climbing down further, away from the mob and back onto the prowl.


    "Stop there!"


    Or not.


    The fellow that had stopped him hadn¡¯t been spotted by Loimos¡¯s sense for life, not because he was particrly stealthy or anything of that sort, the young guard had simply been napping whilst standing and had remained so still, that he had mixed into his surroundings.


    This guard was wearing the same sort of iron armour as all of the others, a basic chestte and helm, the rest was protected by thick gambeson, it might not seem like much but it was more than enough for most problems they could be made to deal with.


    He pointed his spear unsteadily at the undead, it made no doubt in the youth¡¯s mind that he had just identally stumbled upon the sad faced man, but he wasn¡¯t particrly happy about it, he had only found him because his colleague had left him there!


    Leaving the new guy where he was after he had fallen asleep on the job would have been funny normally, certainly not when a bloodthirsty psycho roamed the surroundings.


    "Don¡¯t move! Drop your weapon andy down on the ground! Face against the ground!" at least his tone wasn¡¯t a dead giveaway that he was pissing his pants in fright.


    Loimos didn¡¯t abide by the orders and instead began taking steps toward the guard.


    "Hey¡­ Oi! Didn¡¯t you hear what I just said?! Stop right here! I¡¯ll seriously impale you!" he wasn¡¯t going to be impaling anybody, he didn¡¯t have the guts to strike first, even at a loathsome personage like the murderer in front of him.


    The undead was well about to send all of the guard¡¯s teeth flying, but was interrupted as a crossbow bolt hit him right in the side of his head, the strength of the projectiles enough to push him away.


    The dull sound of the bolt piercing fabric and rotten flesh before hitting a skull made the youth back away.


    An older guard emerged from another alley.


    "Damn boy! I go take a piss further away and you find the sad faced fricker?" the dryugh of the man was inplete antithesis with the situation.


    "Why are youughing?! Your bolt just bounced off this guy¡¯s head!" it certainly looked that way, this bolt had been shot from a proper crossbow, were it not for Loimos garbing himself with additional defences, he would have had a hole in his skull right now.


    He rubbed the ce he had been struck, like a non-undead would and just ran off, sprinting away as suddenly as he had arrived.


    The youth looked at the retreating figure and then at his senior multiple times over.


    "Are we not giving chase?"


    "You think you can catch up?"


    "No, but we could still try something¡­"


    "He is already gone though, bastard is quick on his feet, how the hell does he take corners at those speeds?" the older guard had given up on pursuing Loimos the second he saw that speed, his ageing body wasn¡¯t going to be of any use.


    The younger fellow may seem more capable, but he was as lean as it gets, no muscles, no stamina, no stats and no XP, such was the state of this rather poor duo.


    "We running to give rm!" the older one had just been taking his time to prepare for another exercise, they weren¡¯t going to be catching up to anyone worth their salt, but not every single guard was like this.


    The sound of bells soon sounded throughout the night, it rang three times in quick session, this was the code signifying that the target had been spotted and was on the run.

 Chapter 42: Hounds

    "A true undead has no need for sustenance, no need for rest, no need for fear, a pure undead needs nothing"


    ____________________


    Loimos emerged into a field, paying no heed to his cracked skull, it would mend itself anyways.


    In his haste, he went and retrieved a few more weapons that he had kept hidden away, his steps were nothing short of perfectly normal, his rate of movement decreased to a mere walk as he made his way toward a small group that had most certainly broken off from therger mob.


    The righteous deliverers of the unrefined rumble of the lowly people had broken into multiple pieces, small cliques had formed to cover more ground.


    Small only inparison to their total numbers however, there were still nine people gathered, they seemed to be debating the optics of searching this particr field, it was one filled with pumpkins after all.


    It was a curious thing that they grew wheat and pumpkins during the same period, however, no one here was going to question it.


    This was the norm for the locals and Loimos had no reason to wonder about such a thing, as he entered within their range of sight, he hid the weapon he was carrying behind his back and began taking a much more human disposition.


    Gone were the oddly efficient steps, he acted as though the small differences in soil consistency and dirt mounds were actually surprising him as he walked in the dark.


    A small man noticed him first and he waved his arm to make himself more noticeable, they could discern his shape but certainly not the more minute details of his appearance.


    Were he able to talk, he probably would have said something too.


    His acting was already well enough to fool those unwashed peasants, they didn¡¯t take him for a threat at all and began calling out to him.


    The small man seemed to be taking steps toward him, intending on meeting Loimos halfway, he elerated his steps subtly to avoid having to start his chain of kills in a bad position.


    "Hey, did you find something-?" the man was allowed toplete his sentence, but not his life.


    Loimos somewhat arched his body to the side, using the small man¡¯s own body to obstruct the others¡¯s sight of what Loimos was pulling from behind his back.


    He didn¡¯t even see iting as Loimos stabbed him in the chest with the sword of the bandit leader, he could barely even groan before Loimos decided to make use of the momentary confusion to advance upon the eight others.


    They all stared directly at him rather than the corpse, it was a wee attention to their situation, but they would have been better off acting out of line, from the depth of his hollow sockets, a dark but blinding purple light arose for a split second, blinding the fools.


    He began with the biggest of them all, a man with huge hands which most certainly could have been of use, Loimos hacked right into his face, pulling the sword back to him, he sent the bloodied-up man tumbling into two others, his dead weight pinning them to the ground.


    With another two shes, he sliced right through two throats, two attacks were needed for the next one however, as he luckily raised his hand before the killing blow could reach its mark.


    Almost cleaving his wrist right off, he probably didn¡¯t feel much luck as he soon joined the others on the grounds, fertilising the ground with their fresh blood.


    Loimos¡¯s blinding sh was more effective than he had nned for, that or the peasants were too prone to panic, making them easy targets as they dropped both their weapons and guards to try and solve theirck of vision, absolutely not concerning themselves with the one that had inflicted thisck of sight upon them.


    Apart from the few that managed to move at the right time, all of them only bore a single flesh wound, the great majority to the throat.


    Loimos was aware that major blood vessels were also to be found in other areas such as the armpits, thighs and such.


    Striking the heart, lungs and head directly were also options, however, not only were the neck and throat easily essible, unprotected and tremendously easy to cut through, he couldn¡¯t help but also want to silence in the same move.


    If he was urate enough, blood would fill their throats and they would never be able to do more than gargle a bit.


    Dealing with small, isted groups was much more efficient than trying to go up against the whole mob.


    He felt the death force within growing deeper as his prey¡¯s life force dissipated into the air.


    Loimos would also have to do something about all of the ntations, but doing so without revealing his undeath wasn¡¯t within his reach at the moment.


    He didn¡¯t want specialists of the undead hunt toe for him just yet, that would definitely end up in less living dead by the end of it than otherwise.


    The skeleton moved away from the corpses and soon stepped onto a wide dirt path, the main road still bore the markings of the regr passage of carriages and caravans, even though the influx had recently dropped severely.


    The sound of barking reached Loimos, he was certain that he had gotten rid of all the stray dogs, and also of all the ones domesticated by people, it had been a necessity since their keen sense of smell wasn¡¯t fooled by Loimos restricting his pungent fragrance of decay.


    They had most probably been brought from within the city walls, and judging by the fact that they were rushing right toward him in spite of the darkness shrouding him, they were locked in on him.


    They must have been given his scent, he had most likely lost a bit of his mask when was shot right in the skull.


    He could easily beat them in a battle of stamina, and may even be able to match their speed if he decided to move like when he did back in the crawlspace of the dungeon, like a mad beast.


    Though he doubted that his overall swiftness would be enough to prevent them from catching up.


    Those hounds were rushing toward him without a shred of fear, they must have left their owner in the dust, he was simply going to take them out right here, if they could track his trail, they would be a problem he would have no choice but deal with anyways.

 Chapter 43: That Is Certainly True

    "A true undead knows no pain, A true undead suffers not"


    ____________________


    Loimos raised his de, shifting the position of his feet, he prepared to cut right through the open maw of the first dog that got to him.


    ¡¯...¡¯ he thought nothing but shed at the air, he had noticed somethinging but was way off in his attempt at deflecting it.


    A first arrow lodged itself right in his chest, the tip digging into one of his ribs, he hadn¡¯t thought that anyone would be able to see him, much less aim for him at all, from his position, he couldn¡¯t even make out enough details to tell who was shooting at him.


    Or rather, he couldn¡¯t make out the people nning to shoot him down, before he could do anything else, a flurry of arrows rained down upon him.


    Going right through his clothing and rot, some leaving cracks in his bones.


    ¡¯They are urate¡¯ he noted, barely a few of the shots missed him, and not by much.


    Dozens of shots struck him in the chest and abdomen area, a dozen others spread out between all of his limbs, he didn¡¯t release his grasp on his sword, even when arrows hit him in the skull, one right in his left socket, the tip protruding a slight bit from the back.


    The impact of getting struck by so many arrows at once forced him back and somewhat off-bnce, allowing the fastest hound to dig its fangs right into his ankle.


    The animal stopped, wanting to recoil as the blighted blood sshed into its mouth, Loimos wasn¡¯t fazed by the extensive damage he just received, he stabbed down on the canine¡¯s nape, killing it instantly before sending its body away with a kick.


    The rest of the dogs suddenly seemed hesitant to go after him, the undead jumped into the field to his left, opposite to the pumpkins were long lines of green beans, crouching down, his figure should be out of sight of everyone.


    An arrow still somehow managed tond squarely on his back.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t bothered much by getting shot, he could only wonder about who was aiming so distinctively, were he not an undead, he would have probably been killed by that first arrow.


    In fact, most undeads wouldn¡¯t have been able to just move away after getting damaged so extensively.


    ____________


    "Men! We give chase!" the captain of the guards lowered his bow, undid the string, and put everything back into a bag strapped to his back.


    He said this, but he ran much faster than any of them, leaving them mostly in the dust.


    ¡¯This is no reason to call for Sir Thomas¡¯ the captain couldn¡¯t have been certain before, but it had be clear that the sad faced man didn¡¯t hold a candle to anyone who actually knew what they were doing.


    He could only prey on nonbatants and use surprise attacks, it was a good thing the mob was preupied with preventing their homes from burning to a crisp, otherwise the death toll may have ended up being much higher.


    Whistling, the hounds broke out of their fearful daze and resumed the chase.


    The captain had nothing inmon with the men working under him, all were enrolled locals, theycked much training and rarely ever encountered difficult situations, one look at the adventurers was enough to know that Throdqdmond was a peaceful ce.


    When the best were Eppie¡¯s team and the two brothers, it was to be expected that the most dangerous thing around wasn¡¯t anything much.


    Even the mayor, he ruled the city but he had not even a drop of noble blood, he only had sufficient wealth.


    Throdqdmond wasn¡¯t anything grand, still, the captain wasn¡¯t from around here.


    He went right through the field without caring for the damage, managing to catch up to Loimos before any of the hounds or anyone else by cutting him off, bashing his shoulder into the undead as they neared the edge of the field.


    ¡¯What a strange response!¡¯ the feeling he felt when he tackled the abhorrent murderer was odd to say the least.


    The captain watched as Loimos was sent flying against a tree, they had found themselves in an orchard, the sound of water flowing could be heard in the distance.


    he watched as Loimos stood back up immediately, seemingly unbothered and unharmed.


    ¡¯I definitely felt his right arm being crushed and broken¡­¡¯ but it didn¡¯t appear as such at all, the mysterious man didn¡¯t even make a sound as he got back onto his feet, not to mention all of the arrows were still stuck in his body.


    It was like he felt no pain whatsoever.


    ¡¯He does seem to be breathing¡­ What the hell is he? He has an arrow through the freaking head!¡¯ the captain unsheathed his sword, a slight blue glow seemed to epass both his body and de, but Loimos saw none of it, he only felt a slight change.


    He prepared the rush forward, but Loimos threw his sword forward, aiming at the captain¡¯s midsection, making sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to simply dodge and continue his movement as the undead took off in the opposite direction, weaving in between the trees.


    He began running like a beast, making him much harder to follow, as well as surprisingly faster.


    "No fucking way you are human!" the man shouted out as he deflected the thrown de and began running, the captain was faster than Loimos was, but the undead had much more ease navigating the ce.


    Still, the captain was gaining ground, slowly approaching the sad faced man, raising his de, he was nearly on the verge of reaching Loimos.


    The sound of water flowing got louder and louder, the living soon realised what the killer was aiming for.


    Loimos leapt into the waters below, the captain was forced to stop, the river wasn¡¯t at the same level as the two of them, it was deeper into some sort of ravine-like formation, the flowing of water was raging.


    He wasn¡¯t going to let Loimos get away, however, even through the ambient darkness, the captain was still able to pinpoint his position as he was falling down.


    Rising his sword above his head, grasping the handle with both hands, he sent it spinning through the air with lethal force.


    Splitting the air, the center of the edge lodged itself straight into Loimos¡¯s skull, splitting it and his mask down to the upper jaw.


    A ssh sounded throughout the area, the captain steadied himself waiting for the feeling of XP flowing into his body, only rxing when he felt the rush entering him.


    ¡¯He is dead¡¯ he naturally and correctly concluded, they would only have to fish the body back up, show it to the people and everything would be good.

 Chapter 44: Wet And Indeed Dead

    "Only life may challenge a true undead"


    ________________


    "Damn it" the captain cursed under his breath as he stared into the river.


    It had been a week ever since he had felled the sad faced man, despiteunching searches nearly immediately and starting way further than the ce the corpse had fallen, him and his men had failed to get the man¡¯s body.


    It had neither been caught in thes they had set up at multiple points of the river, and they had failed to find him stuck in rocks or floating back to the surface, the current was too powerful for him to just sink and stay in ce.


    It wasn¡¯t even that deep!


    "No need to bother with this, if you are certain you killed him, he is dead, we¡¯ll just get a dead leper and dress him up like the sad faced man, the people will be content with that, barely anyone alive has ever seen him, they won¡¯t be able to tell the difference" Harold, the town mayor reassured the captain.


    "You are right sir, it is just¡­ I suppose I fear that he may have lived is all, I find it hard to believe my senses when there is no physical proof of the deed, it was so dark, I acted on nothing but instincts and a rough feeling of his position, I have no idea what sort of injury was Inflicted on him" he covered his mouth, a stern look on his face.


    "I have heard of assassins capable of faking the influx of XP so as to appear dead, or skills making the system grant actual XP when there was no kill-"


    "Oh please! What are you on about Robert?" the mayor tapped him on the shoulder.


    "You said it yourself! He was a sloppy and untrained murderer, why would he have such advanced capabilities? Surely, a man with such abilities wouldn¡¯t have been so easily defeated!" he was right, it didn¡¯t make much sense.


    "Perhaps¡­ Maybe it wasn¡¯t a learned skill or ability, but something in-built?" the mayor raised an eyebrow at these words, seemingly considering them for an instant before shaking his head.


    "Sir, this man was strange, he received plenty of wounds that would be lethal even for mighty heroes, organs pierced by arrows, two shots received directly to the head, leg mauled by one of my trained hounds and many more!


    This guy may have not even been human, what if it was another of Aliz¨¦¡¯s-" he spoke his mind earnestly, growing more and more convinced that the killer was still hiding somewhere, waiting for things to calm down before emerging again.


    "Don¡¯t speak of those lunatics! They haven¡¯t shown themselves in years, this isn¡¯t even remotely simr to anything they pulled back then" Harold told Robert to rx and go back to his family.


    "You are much too on edge, the sad faced man is dealt with, call off the searches and let the people celebrate" the mayor turned and left back toward the city.


    Robert could only sigh and do as he was ordered, it was true that all of this was just a theory after all, it was much more likely that he had truly yed the serial murderer and that his corpse had just gotten itself stuck somewhere out of reach.


    "Alright boys! Dismantle everything, I¡¯ll pay for drinks tonight!" he announced loudly.


    _________________________


    "Thank the gods, they got him" Helena slumped back in her seat after a neighbour came by and announced that the sad faced man had been officially dealt with.


    "Are you going to go back to the city?" Milo asked with a straight face.


    "I-" she stopped herself for a split moment.


    "My instructors aren¡¯t gonna be avable for a while longer, so I¡¯ll stay around for a bit" she twirled her hair a bit.


    "Oh really?" the young man spoke excitedly.


    ¡¯Ugh, that was way too obvious¡¯ he immediately thought, Helena didn¡¯t seem to pay attention to his outburst however.


    "Do you have something on your mind?"


    David watched from a distance, he couldn¡¯t but feel his heart warming up, they were just getting along so well!


    He had honestly not thought that it would go that well, he had feared that Milo wouldn¡¯t be able to talk to her, he had seen him fumbling exceptionally hard when conversing with the opposite sex before.


    He was also pleasantly surprised to see that his daughter was still the same as ever, he had feared that spending too much time in the city surrounded by haughty pricks would have changed her for the worst, but she hadn¡¯t changed in the least, she just dressed like a delicate youngdy is all.


    Seeing that Milo wasn¡¯t managing to spit out what he had in mind, the old man, who had been the one to give him the idea in the first ce, stepped in to help the younger generation.


    "Why not go to theke, the one next to the watermelon field?" he did his part.


    "Ah, I haven¡¯t been there in forever, you know it Milo?" Helena perked up, she used to love throwing rocks and pushing other kids in there back in the days.


    "Yeah! Mister David showed it to me"


    The two continued to bond together until the day began to retreat, casting a bright orange light upon the world as the moon became visible in its entirety, casting its own, fainter light.


    Tonight would be bright, a good thing since many would be busy drinking themselves away to celebrate the end of the strings of murders.


    They had even made an effigy of the loathsome one and burnt it earlier that day.


    Utterly convinced that the nightmare hade to an end, they rejoiced and looked forward to better days.


    Tonight would be the start of it all!


    Loimos emerged from the tumultuous river, his skull stuck back together but notpletely mended.


    The people the mayor had called for had been sent away or told about it beforehand, the target had been dealt with, the guards were either back to their families after multiple days of constant hunt, or drinking themselves away with their captain¡¯s money.


    The undead found a way to sew his mask back together roughly, armed with the bandit¡¯s sword and that of the captain that the man had unwillingly donated, he made his way toward the tavern lost amongst the fields.

 Chapter 45: Bar Brawl

    "Hey man, I heard that the king was gonna marry¡­ With¡­ Huh, what¡¯s her name again?" a drunk man raised his head from the table, and his own vomit by the same asion to speak his mind.


    This particr group of drunk men was sitting right next to the entrance, they paid no mind to the man that had just entered, not even sparing him a nce as he put something down and lingered at the entrance for a little bit too long.


    "Heh? I hear- I hear-" another tried to respond but just fell asleep right here and there.


    "I was told that Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e is actually a woman" a third one interjected with somethingpletely unrted.


    The man at the entrance was messing around with the door, locking it and shaking it with utter calmness to see how well it was holding up.


    "I thought that it was Shieldmaster Bough that was thedy, can you imagine all that meat under that armour?" one stared at the ceiling at the thought of the meat in question.


    Done with his verifications, the man standing there looked around at the rowdy tavern, filled to the brim with dead drunk men, a few waitresses weaving around the copsed, drooling fools to serve more alcohol.


    Dead drunk wasn¡¯t enough dead for him.


    "Aah, shut up man, try getting into your wife¡¯s pants before Bough¡¯s!" they erupted intoughter at their friend¡¯s expense, mocking his failed marriage like only good friends could.


    The entire room was full of nothing butughing and fun, the oh-so distinctive smell of booze and its regurgitated homologue was permeating the air.


    Looking up, Loimos could see that the room was illuminated by a sort of makeshift chandelier made up of multiple brightnterns, apart from that, othernterns were strung about, out of reach of the partygoers.


    Alcohol and fire didn¡¯t mesh together very well after all.


    The undead picked up his two swords that he had propped up against the wall, he could do all the suspicious movements he could think of, no one was paying attention, and frankly, it was dubious if anyone could put two and two together at the moment.


    He dual wielded the two des, the two swords not quite the same length and width, Loimos found no issue in this, he was neither left handed or right handed after all, he could use his two hands just as well as the other, unlike the supposedly greatly evolved apes.


    With top notch precision at all times, or at least, his top notch.


    He rose one above the head of theughing men, the one that had begun with speaking of their king¡¯s uing marriage.


    The other at a waitress with her back turned to him, the women going around to serve drinks were most certainly a problem since they weren¡¯t intoxicated, but it didn¡¯t matter.


    Without hesitation, Loimos split one¡¯s skull and shed right through a nape.


    Killing the two instantly, the blood sshed over some of the customers, they were confused as to why warmth was getting all over them, the more apt realised that it was blood, but they weren¡¯t quite clear minded enough to immediately react and just stared at it with nk expressions.


    Pulling the de back the divided head, Loimos pulled the man out of his chair with this move, the shock of hitting the ground dislodging half of his brain, allowing it to roam free and see the outside world for itself.


    Loimos stepped over it without a care as he began to ruthlessly cleave through as many of the living before him as possible, dealing horrific wounds with each of his shes, at the moment, standing around like statues, they were nothing more than a grass field in need of some trimming.


    Dozens of people were reduced to limp masses of flesh oozing blood as they convulsed helplessly before someone actually reacted, some big guy with long dirty hair crashed into Loimos, mming the undead into a wall.


    All hell broke loose.


    Loimos stabbed both of his des into the man¡¯s back, forcing him to let go.


    The passive drunks had finally finalised their process of choosing between fight or flight, and they all chose fight.


    As soon as the skeleton got rid of the first man, one had already shattered a chair in his face, pushing Loimos away, who didn¡¯t care for it and used the provided momentum to swing one of his swords and slit two throats.


    Running in between the two dying men, he pushed them into the crowd and dropped oneyer of his disguise right there and then, a foetid smell infested the tavern, overtaking the ingrained scent with ease, multiple puked and more were repulsed, their eyes itching and watering.


    Loimos stabbed someone through their open mouth, receiving a nasty left hook right to his jaw, which tilted his head away, he kicked the man in the crotch anyways and swung his other sword in the other direction.


    Someone caught his arm and refused to let go, the undead dragged the stubborn man along with him and used him as a meat shield as he abandoned his other sword as it stayed stuck in ce.


    Instead sucker punching a skinny man right in the throat.


    He managed to throw the one clinging to him over at another man, before kicking a table to create some breathing room.


    Another chair was broken to splinters as it was mmed into his back, before some guy with huge arms and burns on his arm uppercut Loimos, almost popping his skull right off.


    Two other guys had taken their time to pick up an entire table, throwing it with remarkable force at the undead, who crouched down to dodge it, it instead hit other of their fellows.


    It seemed like they were beating the crap out of him, which was absolutely true, but they were definitely not dealing as much damage as they believed, Loimos, even if his bones were damaged, they were held together by his thick coat of rot, he shrugged off every hit.


    A sly one grabbed the undead by the shoulder and proceeded to repeatedly shank him in the stomach, quite the impressive technique there, he had definitely been in the business of stabbing people for a while.


    Piercing damage was probably the least effective thing against Loimos though, and he had just benevolently brought a new de to him, one much easier to whip around amidst this conglomerate of furious drunks.


    He headbutted the stabber and haphazardly chucked hisst sword at the legs of the crowd, making them all jump around, bump into each other and fall as a collective.


    Turning the knife on its owner, Loimos pushed the trembling body away and leaped on a table before jumping once more and catching onto the chandelier.


    The loose thing dropped to the ground immediately, crushing many of the customers and sending fiery oil onto the wooden floor.

 Chapter 46: Blown Away

    The inhibited blood flow of the drunkards didn¡¯t make thempletely stupid, fire was a very natural fear, especially when it suddenly appeared in your face.


    Immediately, most of them switched their gears and aimed to either try to find something to put out the fire, or escape the tavern.


    The clothes of the corpses of those that had been crushed by the chandelier served as perfect kindling for the mes, a blinding ball of fire soon formed in the center of the ce, threatening to swallow everything.


    Loimos had already leapt away before he too was caught in the midst of the fire, throwing himself to the ground, rolling and quickly standing up, only to receive a severe kick straight to the abdomen, the sort that forcefully regurgitated your previous meal.


    His lower back struck a table, stopping him from getting thrown to the ground, with an unnatural movement, he leaned his back on the table to grab a bottle, throwing it at the man¡¯s chest before he could get to him.


    The bottles were of good manufacture, it didn¡¯t break from the impact, but it certainly hurt like hell.


    It seemed like Loimos had chosen the worst possible direction to jump away from the mes, running toward the one guy that was both still willing to throw hands by this point, and also one that actually knew how to fight.


    Loimos was no fighting expert, he mostly operated on his undead instincts mixed in with whatever information the system had fed him due to the undead obtaining and leveling up a variety of skills from his strings of murder.


    But he could tell that this stature was the one of a seasoned fighter, a skilled adventurer perhaps? Or one of the better guards? Perhaps simply a retired veteran?


    It was of little importance, the man grabbed the bottle as it was falling and threw it right back at Loimos, with much more force than the undead was capable of summoning, exploding into a shower of shards right in his face, he kicked down on one of the legs of the table, unexpectedly using the subsequent tilting of the table to roll away as the man kicked down on his former position.


    Loimos heightened the putrid stench he was emitting, the increased smell of rot struck spread across the room, one man trying to get through one of the narrow windows passed out after identally taking a deep breath.


    The oddly focused drunk fighter didn¡¯t recoil but his eyes ached just as when the scent had first spread out, he forced himself to keep his eyes open, it was no use, his vision blurred intensely as tears were forced out.


    He wasn¡¯tpletely blinded, raising one hand, he fearlessly stopped the knifeing his way with his own palm, clutching Loimos¡¯s hand and forcing him to stay within reach.


    One punch struck him, two punches struck him, many more hits came raining down on him within a few instant.


    It was clear by the living¡¯s expression that he came to notice that something was terribly off with Loimos, the stench could be attributed to various things, but that feeling he felt when his punchesnded squarely against him, that was a clear sign that something was wrong.


    The undead grabbed the man¡¯s wrist and leaned forward, uncaring for his mask in the way, he bit right through the throat, ripping everything he caught between his sharp teeth.


    With the bottom of his mask bloodied up, Loimos turned to the man behind the counter, who curiously enough, hadn¡¯t escaped, he was the only one left that still seemed to believe he could put the fire out.


    The undead approached.


    ___________


    "Things haven¡¯t changed much since thest time I was there" Helena spoke with her hands behind her head as she spoke.


    Milo, who was soaking wet at the moment, turned to her.


    "How long have you been in the city for exactly?" he had never been told by David how long he had truly been separated from his daughter, he felt like there were things he didn¡¯t know.


    "Five years? Pretty much ever since mom died" she responded tly, not seeming very saddened about mentioning her mother¡¯s death.


    The farm boy didn¡¯t feel like digging was the right option there, so he swiftly, and very much slickly, changed the subject.


    "Ah, would you mind showing me what sort of magic you learned?" he had yet to see any of what she was supposedly being tutored about, she had mostly seemed like a country girl, but with a bigger vocabry and a more restrained ent.


    "Well, I have mostly been focusing on manipting my inner mana and converting it to my affinity, it is pretty boring honestly- Let me show a spell instead!" she quickly beamed a smile and seemed ready to do it right there and then.


    The two youngsters could see the tavern burning to the ground from their position after getting out of a heavily forested portion.


    They had been so focused on discussing, that they hadn¡¯t even paid attention to the smoke before, chalking it up to just another brazier lit up by the vigers, just like the one they had put together to burn the sad faced man effigy.


    A closer inspection would have revealed that it was obviously much too big and dark to be the case.


    Their timing was perfect for them to witness the owner of the tavern bursting out of the front door, or rather, being brutally forced out as he was burning to death.


    Milo and Loimos locked eye contact, the two recognised each other from back when the undead had first stolen his clothing.


    Loimos wasn¡¯t interested in trying to kill him at the moment however, he was apanied by a most troublesome opponent!


    However-!


    He wasn¡¯t quick enough to get away before he felt a disturbance, said anomaly was the gust of wind that took him off the ground and swept him right back into the burning tavern, so powerfully that was sent flying straight up at a wooden beam.


    ¡¯Magic is troublesome¡¯ he could onlye to this conclusion as he focused on his rot to keep his spine together.


    Most importantly, he made his escape through the window from the back before the me caught onto him.


    "Let¡¯s hurry back" Milo grabbed Helena by the hand and began running, seeing theplete destruction and people running off into the distance, he had instantly be worried for the old man.

 Chapter 47: An Accident

    ¡¯What the hell was that?¡¯ Helena was left momentarily in shock when she caught a glimpse of Loimos, checking people¡¯s mana signature had be a habit for her, but she wasn¡¯t taken aback by the fact that she failed to find a signature, it was because by focusing directly on him, she had in fact felt his mana.


    Awfully deep and dark mana, it felt like sensing it for too long would be dangerous and her heart skipped a beat, it didn¡¯t stop her from sending him flying purely on reflex though.


    She didn¡¯t notice the feeling of XP flowing into her and instead, just like Milo hurried to get in touch with her father, the news of the tavern massacre seemed to have already reached the vige, everyone was moving around in a panic.


    Despite already sensing him once, after letting go of her focus on him, Helena could no longer get a hold of him, normally this would be possible.


    The two soon arrived before their home, old man David was standing at the front door, perfectly fine and seeming overjoyed at seeing them all right.


    Loimos bursted out of a dark alley and rushed down to someone standing on the main road, a woman that had probably been doing the same thing as David was, waiting for her loved ones to show up.


    The undead grasped her by the back of her neck, his murderous hand nearly wrapping all around her frail neck, Loimos was certain that he would be able to shatter it by simply squeezing harder.


    He seemed faster too, it was like the rush of the new death force was more potent than it used to be, normally, even after killing so many people, he shouldn¡¯t have experienced such an increase in power, even when counting the possible stats upgrade.


    Stats were nothing but an essory to one¡¯s physicality and capabilities, the death force Loimos absorbed transformed him into a greater undead every time he took in more.


    The skeleton didn¡¯t stop to question what was happening to him, he began advancing upon the mage, using his hostage to make sure that she wouldn¡¯t be casting any gusts of wind.


    Once she was dealt with, the vigers running around like headless chickens would be free game, he would ughter as many of them as possible and retreat once the guards showed up, or rather, when their captain arrived.


    ¡¯Crap!¡¯ Milo almost spoke aloud, the sad faced man, with his bloodied up mask was charging at them fast, really fast actually, he had wasted no time between when he had showed up again and began his rush down.


    They had still been focused on David when he got a hold of the woman, and they weren¡¯t that far from one another either.


    The farm boy had to react quickly, without thinking.


    Helena could only cast a simple spell with the time allotted to her, nothing that would allow her to bypass the meat shield could be put together in so little time, and she wasn¡¯t going to be evading Loimos.


    ¡¯I should have learned more about mana reinforcement!¡¯ she cursed herself for not being able to know every single thing about magic, already imagining the de of that knife being driven into her chest.


    Milo stepped in between her and Loimos.


    This wasn¡¯t within the undead¡¯s expectations, he was still but a new undead, he may be a special one, but still had a very much stunted view of his natural enemies, the living were supposed to fear death to their very cores, this was a fact, yet, sometimes, that fear could be pushed back even if only for an instant.


    To Loimos, until now, a living taking a hit and putting their precious life on the line was an impossibility, protecting another? Certainly, but this was on a whole different level, once he got a hold of Milo, he would kill him for certain.


    The knife sunk into flesh, right through the side of the chest, in between two ribs and piercing a lung.


    Loimos¡¯s knife was taken for his hands as the body moved away with much force, he had stabbed neither his intended target, nor the one that had just managed to take him by surprise and subvert his expectations.


    Old man David had been swift, so very swift.


    Neither Helena, his only biological child, nor Milo, the boy from nowhere he had taken under his wing made a sound.


    They could only see their father sprawled on the ground, bleeding profusely and unable to breath.


    Loimos snapped the neck of his hostage and threw her corpse at Helena, still intent on killing her anyways.


    ¡¯The living have always paused when confronted with the death of their own before¡¯ whenever he had yed families, friends and such, it had always happened, even if only for a second.


    Tonight was a night of learning however, and he wasn¡¯t allowed even an inch.


    The undead turned as he realised that the farm boy was going to try and attack him, receiving a punch straight to the center of his chest, he tried to back off, feeling himself being pushed back, thrown into the air and against the side of the nearby house.


    Hitting the wooden wall with excessive force.


    ¡¯Incredible striking force¡¯ he could only note coldly as the concussive force ignored his mantle of rot, shattering his ribs and almost splitting his upper and lower half again.


    That kid, that small young man that appeared scrawny and weak had just hit him harder than he had ever been hit, at least when it came to straight brute force, there was no technique, just pure muscle mass and wish for the undead to be turned to paste.


    Loimos pushed off the wall and tried running back toward a dark alley, as he used his right arm to get more momentum when getting away, it was suddenly shed right at the shoulder by a de of wind.


    That would have cut him in half vertically had he not moved as soon as it was possible, the fact that his mind couldn¡¯t be muddled by pain or anything was the only reason he wasn¡¯t in pieces right now.


    He knew that this wouldn¡¯t have destroyed him, but that would have certainly put a stain on his idea of retreating.


    That attack was perfect, however, he took off running, and before any of the two could give chase or shoot him down, they were distracted as his severed right arm moved on its own, leaping into the air where they could see.

 Chapter 48: The Rot

    Loimos ran off through the habitations, through the deserted viges, aiming to make his escape and hide into the woods until further notice.


    He heard the familiar barking of hounds in the distance, the captain must have been quick on the uptake.


    Loimos couldn¡¯t drop down and begin running like a wild monstrosity either, with a missing arm he would just end up moving slower than he could with just his two legs.


    Something was off this time, the barking wasn¡¯ting from a single direction, it wasing from all around, as though he was already surrounded, which was nonsensical, the captain couldn¡¯t have just known that Loimos would end up here, he shouldn¡¯t have even been certain that the sad faced man would reemerge.


    But by all means, it seemed as though the captain knew exactly where he was at the moment, perhaps he was close-by already.


    The undead stopped abruptly, unarmed and missing an appendage, he was severely disadvantaged, even more so since the captain of the guards was already a living he couldn¡¯t take down in a fight.


    Loimos had been nning on eventually catching him in his sleep, that would save most of the trouble.


    He prepared for whatever could being his way, the dogs were converging onto his position, he could tell by the sound.


    Something soon became clear to the skeleton, but it was toote, he turned and saw that the captain, as well as a bunch of other people had already arrived.


    The barking had kept closing in from every direction, yet, Loimos never sensed any life force entering within his field of senses, it was a trick.


    He had stopped right there and then to meet the animals but only allowed his pursuers to catch up to him.


    There were seven people, Loimos knew all of them, at least, he had seen them before.


    Robert had brought with him none of his guards, his best men had all been drinking at the tavern and were either too wasted to fight, or already dead.


    Knowing that this was what they would do in advance, the captain who had been severely doubting the validity of the XP he had received, gathered the best adventurers of Throdqdmond.


    Namely, the team of four youngdies, and the two brothers, that was the best this ce had to offer, it was sad, but it was true.


    Robert trusted in their abilities however, he whistled and the noise of barking hounds disappeared, that was his specialty, the dogs he raised and trained could be of many uses to him outside of what they could normally provide.


    Sharing senses, and this little trick he had just used, which allowed him to make the sounds his dogs made to appearpletely elsewherepared to their locations, nothing better to stop a runaway, when he had the asion of using it.


    He once again reinforced his body and sword with mana, only to see Loimos not care at all and just sprinting the other way.


    The sad faced man was currently looking quite disheveled, his mask and coat were all distorted from receiving all sorts of hits, being coated with blood over and over, he resembled some sort of creature of nightmares.


    Seeing him with an arm missing, but not bleeding at all confirmed his suspicions that he was no man.


    Robert didn¡¯t need much time to catch up, shing Loimos in the back.


    Being in a rather precarious situation, the undead abandoned all pretenses and allowed his rotten blood to splurge out, the dark liquid forced the man to back off, feeling like this thing could definitely melt through his skin.


    Loimos kept on trying to get away, but luck wasn¡¯t on his side today, he reached a cliff, one deep, steep and filled with jagged rocks, this wasn¡¯t like the river, this would definitely grind him into bone meal, even with his best efforts.


    He stopped and backed off from the edge, just in time to get hit in the face by another of Lynn¡¯s terribly ineffective bolts, his skull was rather in poor shape at the moment however, his skull took damage.


    Cassi approached from the side with her mace at the ready, he raised his arm to try and intercept her, only for it to be chopped just like the first one by Z.


    Now, this was rather troublesome, the mace hit him right in the jaw, smashing it alongside his teeth, taking away another one of his weapons.


    The undead avoided two attacks, Robert trying to deprive him of one of his legs, and Tahnee simply sweeping at them.


    Saul blocked his way, stabbing him in the back and mming his shield as well, pushing the undead back into the midst of the formation.


    Another bolt was shot, hitting him right in the knee somehow, shaking the link in between the two bones and making him wobbly.


    Rendering him unable to move for the fireball carefully prepared by Eppie, it wasn¡¯t a regr fireball however, it was her second spell, which was a fireball but with a twist.


    Instead of exploding and sting whatever was in the radius, the fire engulfed Loimos, setting himpletely ame.


    Regaining his footing, he ignored the fire, he couldn¡¯t do anything about it anyways, Eppie was well guarded in the back of the formation, and even if he got to her, he wascking in ways of killing her at the moment.


    Tahnee¡¯s kite shield mmed into him from the side, Cassi and Z both aimed from his legs, one smashing it down with mace, the other brutally stomping on the side of his knee, both achieving the same result.


    Robert was going to the killing blow.


    ¡¯...¡¯


    ¡¯This is quite the pickle, I find myself in¡¯


    ¡¯I need to do something, otherwise I will not be able to fulfilling my purpose any longer¡¯


    The undead thought rationally, his eyes bursted out with the purple glow as he focused on producing and manipting the rot.


    Primeval Rot, this was the name of the ability he had had since the very beginning, it was what he, a pure undead, had been brought into existence with.


    His clothes erupted with rot, covering his entire body in a sh, it grew and grew, pushing all of the living away, before suddenly bursting into a rain of blighted blood.


    Small vegetation withered away, the skin of the attackers was burnt when itnded on them, resting metal and eating away at wood, only a pile of broken bonesid in the center of the st, something was missing.

 Chapter 49: Gone

    "He got away" Robert moved some of the still bubbling and writhing rot to reveal more of the filthy bones beneath.


    "Huh, he looks pretty dead to me" Cassi chimed in, kicking arger mass of decay, which seemed to be moving on its own.


    "Yeah, we even felt the XP and all that business" Lynn backed her friend up.


    Z stepped forward, the bright moon up ahead illuminating everything clearly in spite of the trees, the rain of ck blood had certainly reduced the amount of leaves all over the area.


    "Oh, the head is missing" he quickly mentioned after scanning the remains, that was a rather suspicious part of the skeleton to be missing.


    "Between the bones, whatever that crap it spewed out before blowing up and the freaking stench permeating the air, it seems pretty obvious that our murderer was an undead in disguise" Eppie ran her hands through her hair, getting rid of some of the decay that had gotten stuck.


    "That would certainly exin why this guy never flinched at all, though, with that sort of behaviour he has shown, wouldn¡¯t that make him a superior undead? Have any of you actually met one of those walking corpses?" Z spoke up again, only Robert had ever even seen an undead before today, and they had all been mindless ones, not even natural undeads, they had all been minions for a necromancer.


    This one definitely seemed like the real deal.


    "Undeads are supposed to be rare, the mostmon that have actual intelligence are vampires and the sort¡­" the captain was feeling anxious, one other thing he knew was that undeads didn¡¯t typically more by themselves, skeletons and zombies generally formed in groups, since the amount of ambient death force needed for corpses to be undead was quiterge.


    Everyone remained silent for a while as the very real possibilities that this was the early sign of a horde dawned upon them.


    Although the records and knowledge of thest war against death had been mostly lost, the living still remembered one term associated with them.


    The hordes.


    Travelling in groups, they stampeded over viges, forests, everywhere where there was life, converting the people, beasts and monsters into moving carcasses, growing and growing in numbers to the point where their sheer strength as a group became simply overwhelming, necessitating war-like efforts to clear.


    Not to mention that such arge mass of undeads, packed up together would lead to them destroying the life in the air wherever they went, recing it with death and leading to the growth of a real bizarre ecosystem.


    The ce a horde was destroyed would be an undead breeding ground if not properly cleared up, one of the most devastating things a horde could create was death miasma.


    "I¡¯ll go report to the mayor immediately-" Robert was about to leave immediately.


    "Hold on, are we not gonna, like, search for this guy¡¯s head? He couldn¡¯t haveunched it that far" Cassi interrupted him.


    Sure, hordes were dangerous, but this singr thing was also dangerous in its own right, it couldn¡¯t be allowed to get away from here.


    "I fear the skull wasunched over there" Eppie pointed toward the cliff.


    The ravine here was simply enormous, it had used to be a hotspot for adventurer missions when there were still crystals and minerals to be harvested near the surface, but it had all dried up, not to mention, depending on how strongly the undead hadunched itself, it could have sent its skull into the deeper chasm, which was mostly unexplored territory.


    "Hold on a second, why is everyone acting like it¡¯s not dea- I mean, double dead? Anyways, we got the XP is what I mean, that is confirmation" Lynn expressed herself, Cassi nodding her head in approval of the question.


    Eppie had no actual clue why Robert didn¡¯t believe this, so she just turned and looked at him.


    "It has already tricked me this way" he simply responded.


    In truth, he didn¡¯t know exactly what was at y here, he could only suppose that it was the effect of a skill or technique perhaps.


    "Now I¡¯ll be going" he ran off, for if a horde had really formed somewhere, they would need to call the specialists immediately.


    The professionals that made the destruction of the dead their all time job, the death hunters.


    The adventurers were left by themselves, with what Loimos had left behind with his escape.


    Z turned around to look for his brother, who hadn¡¯t participated in the talk at all for some reason.


    ¡¯Huh¡¯ he remained in ce as he bore witness to a most interesting scene.


    Saul hadn¡¯t spoken up because he was busy with important business, namely, flirting with the fourth member of the other team there, Tahnee.


    ¡¯In any situation¡­¡¯ right after a literal mass of rot and pungent blood had blown up in their faces didn¡¯t seem like the most optimal moment to approach a woman, but Saul was definitely doing it.


    He wasn¡¯t even fazed by the fact that Tahnee never said a word and just made small sounds at most.


    Waiting for his brother to finish the conversation, he then pulled him a distance away as they began making their way back.


    "So, I didn¡¯t know you were into women taller and bigger than you"


    "Oi, she is only, like half a head taller than me-"


    "..."


    "A head taller alright, and what¡¯s the problem?" Saul coughed a bit.


    "Nothing, I just didn¡¯t realise you were the submissive sort" Z had to stop himself from dying ofughter at his own words.


    "You¡¯re a real piece of shit man, just because it¡¯s the truth, it doesn¡¯t mean you have to say it!"


    Saul rubbed his chin.


    "But if we are ying this game, then does that mean I get to mention the time you said you wanted to marry our sister?" he snickered back.


    "Hey now, I was five years old, and I was told that marriage was with a girl you liked! I didn¡¯t know any better! I just thought she was the neatest girl I knew!" Z defended himself, his stomach turning upside down as the memories resurfaced.


    The two brothers continued this back and forth all the way back,pletely unconcerned.

 Chapter 50: Massacre And Depth

    "How long until we understand? How many more need to die? How can we not all see it? How is it that we have not gone to greater lengths to eradicate our natural enemy?"


    -Bethome Meleme


    ______________________


    Silence.


    Only silence could truly capture the emotions swirling in the air, many had died tonight, murdered brutally and without any thoughts given to them.


    Man at least felt something when killing its own, there was a purpose when man hunted beasts down.


    But there was neither feelings, nor a need when an undead took a life, it simply did and would proceed onto the next one without any more thoughts given.


    It seemed as though there was no purpose to killing, the corpses they left in their wake were hollow, devoid of meaning, or so the living seemed to think.


    Helena and Milo were frozen in ce, David had had no final words, only hisst, sacrificial action was left as a testament of the man he was, the hit had been instantly fatal, the pain instantly knocking him out, only leaving him a few moments as he silently suffocated.


    Helena could only curse herself for not being more forceful when she had tried to convince him to move into the city with her, but David would never leave his fields behind, he had always been intent on breathing hisst here.


    Milo¡¯s head was empty, he barely had any memories of his time before meeting the somewhat goofy old man, he had been his only parental figure, and he had been a great one, even if, truthfully, their time together had been short.


    "Could you help me carry him?" Helena was the first to break the heavy silence, her tone and face distant as put her hand on David¡¯s shoulder, it was already cold.


    The warmth had been robbed.


    "I¡¯ll take care of it" Milo was simrly disposed, but he felt distinctively sick.


    He picked up his foster father, David had been old but strong, yet his body felt so incredibly light, when had he gotten so small and frail?


    Helena didn¡¯t need to tell him what to do, he was already aware, David had had the poor habit of constantly speaking of what to do when he died.


    He wanted to be buried beside histe wife, frankly, Helena didn¡¯t want him to rest eternally next to her, but she would never be able to bring herself to desecrate her father¡¯s wishes in this matter.


    ________________


    Deep into the earth, amidst murderous stgmites and impending stctites, here too, silence ruled over all, any sound made here, even the slightest, even if incredibly subtle, it would echo, resonate throughout the intertwined caverns, reaching deeper into the earth than any had ever gone.


    Or at least, deeper than anyone had evere back from.


    Where the slightest movement of an insect was a cacophony, a loud and wet pping sound silenced the critters, petrifying them in ce.


    Bats rose from their deep slumber, flying away in fright at the strange neer, the loud sounds were generally rocks breaking off, but this was nothing like it, nor was it the sound of heavy rain.


    A scrawny figure, with minuscule, glowing eyes crawled over from a small passageway, clicking its tongue against the inside of its mouth, dark, protruding spots, each much harder and than its pale skin rubbing against the stone as it tentatively moved its disproportionately long arms closer to the thing that had justnded there.


    This monster was a curious one, chattering its teeth constantly as it got closer, its vision was incredibly poor, in fact, it was pretty much blind and would suffer immensely by being even grazed by a ray of sunlight.


    It could feel the foetid smell, but as a creature that fed on decaying corpses and faeces, it wasn¡¯t shaken by it, even if the smell was much stronger than what it was used to.


    It¡¯s curiosity was simply too great to be left unsatisfied, the chattering of its teeth grew more and more rapid, reaching the immobile mass of rot, it just wanted to poke at it, a simple thing, just touch it and see, it was all that it truly desired from the strange thing fallen from above.


    Its nailless finger neared the pile, it was still unmoving, it got closer and closer, already imagining how it would feel to push against the rotten mush, but once it reached its mark, it didn¡¯t touch anything.


    The pound of putrefaction moved at thest moment before closing in, ensnaring the hand and wrist of the foolish creature.


    It shrieked in pain as it tried to pull away, it was digging into its skin and flesh, emanating some sort of oily liquid as it did so, as though it was trying to inject him with venom.


    Willing its strength against the stack of flesh debris was very sessful, but simply meaningless, some of the rot popped, sending a straight jet of ck blood directly at the monster¡¯s face, getting into its nostrils, small eyes and mouth, pretty much forcing its way in like a congregation of disgusting snakes.


    The harrowing cries of the monster filled the caves, perhaps some of its kin woulde to help.


    None would, the cries of one of them was a sign to hide and run, not a call to rally and unite their strength.


    The rot dragged itself along the ground, much like a slug, it left a dark trail behind itself as it crawled upon the convulsing monster, following the blood, the rot turned more malleable and made its way inside, through the throat, directly to the stomach area, before bursting with a stream of foul blood.


    The monster stopped struggling andid still as it experienced a fastened process of dposition in certain areas of its body.


    Its corpse lost all of its meagre muscle mass, much of the flesh was lost as well, leaving only a thinyer of skin floating around the bones, its eyes hollowed.


    The meat and muscles were reced by rot as something became engraved on its abdomen, the skeletal face of Loimos, as the remaining half of his skull pushed against the skin from the inside.


    The corpse stood up, walking away with a straight back and a calm walk,pletely unbefitting of itself.

 Chapter 51: Eccentric

    Only a week passed after the tavern massacre, normally, a ughter wasn¡¯t exactly a cause for rapid investigations or anything, people ending up as chew toys for some random monster or a random maniac going on a rampage was at the bottom of the list of important things.


    At least when the victims were no name farmers and peasants from a remote, destitute city.


    However, the word that the cause was an undead hadn¡¯t been kept a secret, not at all, Robert had spread the word to his men, who all repeated it to their wives and children, who in turn spread it around with impressive speed.


    Harold even held a speech about it, where he pronounced the word ¡¯undead¡¯ so many times that it barely sounded like a word by the end of it.


    The mayor and captain of the guard knew exactly what they were doing, the information spread out quickly, and it quickly reached ears that did nothing but wait to hear about the walking corpses.


    After just one more additional week, the death hunters had already arrived, it was like they had been waiting close-by, but in truth, they were just very fast when it mattered.


    Harold and Robert stood side by side, honestly quite in shock at their supernatural swiftness, they were like a bunch of moths drawn to a light, flocking and hitting their heads against the ss of antern repeatedly.


    Much like the fuzzy insects, leaving after being attracted would prove difficult unless they found a satisfactory conclusion to what they called, ¡¯the undead filth¡¯.


    "Have you two gotten the guild ready?" Robert asked two other men standing nearby, Frank and Louis had been burdened with an actual job to do, which was to amodate the guild for the flood of death hunters, though they had vastly underestimated those fanatics, they were way more of them than one could expect.


    Those numbers could actually make some very small countries sweat a bit, and this was just those that had gotten there for now, no one could tell when more would show up.


    "Yes sir, we have dusted off the station for weapon and armour maintenance, emptied some storage rooms to serve as bedrooms or whatever if necessary" Frank spoke first, wiping his sweaty forehead.


    "And I will take care of going around and informing them of the finer details of what happened" Louis followed quickly, cracking his neck in preparation.


    Before any of the four men could say or do anything, someone came from behind the two guild workers, putting their hands on their shoulders, startling them both enough for them to yelp out.


    "Gentlemen, you look like people in charge" it was a rather tall young woman, she seemed rather slender as well but she was dressed in some sort of brown, aged trench coat which made it hard to know for sure.


    She was wearing some peculiar round sses, the lens seemed to be able to be flipped in and out of their sockets, they were flipped up at the moment.


    Leaving a clear sight of her oddly pink eyes.


    "How may we help you?" Robert spoke first, putting his hand in front of the mayor¡¯s face to signal to him that he should be silent for a bit.


    Robert, as good as he was, hadn¡¯t seen hering at all, and judging by the way she was dressed, using his meagre knowledge of death hunters, he guessed that she was a vampire hunter, which were regarded as generally the harder undead sort to hunt down.


    "Oh hello handsome, why don¡¯t you tell me about that undead that went through here?" she gave him a smile that made him deeply ufortable, he looked around for Frank and Louis, but the two cowards had already run away.


    He turned to the side, even the mayor had casually slipped into the distance, Harold just showed him a thumb up as he backed off.


    "I heard a lot of rumours but they weren¡¯t very clear, and so very much going in all directions, what sort of undead was it?" she spoke again, Robert took a step back before answering.


    "We strongly believe that it was a skeleton, it¡¯s remains were put on disy at the guild, if you want to inspect it, one of its arms is pinned with nails to one of the farms, it is still moving and trying totch onto people" Robert had to keep stepping back because she kept trying to get ufortably close.


    "Also, I am married" he added defensively, perhaps he would have normally been ttered that a younger woman was interested in him, but she seriously creeped him out, like, just her presence made him feel soiled.


    "Huhuh, a skeleton? A smart skeleton all on its own?" ignoring hisst words, she piled up the questions for a few more minutes until Robert had nothing more to tell her.


    She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, the captain noticed a reflection inside of her right sleeve as she did so, she was probably carrying weapons everywhere on her person.


    "Hum, hum¡­" she smiled again.


    "You say it ejected its skull into the ravine this way?" Robert nodded his head.


    "If I am not mistaken, that¡¯s the Elephant Cave System, it spreads in every direction, linked to hundreds and thousands of caves everywhere, certain portions are also nearly impossible to navigate, either environmentally speaking or due to the monster poptions¡­" she clicked the lenses of her sses in,pletely obstructing her eyes with a dark shade.


    She shrugged her shoulders dismissively.


    "By the way, my name is Rummy" she ran her gloved hands through her curly short blonde hair.


    "Your wife would never know old man, let¡¯s go out sometime" then she strolled away, Robert heaved a sigh of relief.


    ¡¯Dear gods, I hope not all the death hunters are like that, they better find undeads to kill, otherwise I fear what will happen if they stay here for too long¡¯ he took off his helm and just leaned up against a wall.

 Chapter 52: Hunters Of Death

    "This is pretty worrying actually" a big man with red skin and dark, lustrous horns in the shape of thunderbolts spoke as he held onto the arm that had been pinned to the barn by Helena and Milo.


    The thing was still moving with much strength, threatening to slip out of his grasp, the man¡¯s grip wasn¡¯t easy to ovee however.


    "Yeah, the death force isn¡¯t in abundance, but it isn¡¯t slipping away from the severed limb, and it seems like it is truly operating of its own volition, the undead isn¡¯t willfully trying to move his arm at all, it¡¯s basically it¡¯s own undead" a woman dressed in all white wearing a mask crossed her arms, her white robes flowing all over the ce.


    The man with red skin, peeled off the sleeve and glove still stuck to the self-efficient arm, brushing away the rot as it bursted with ck blood like ripe fruits.


    He and the woman inspected the skeletal arm with interest, watching as small bumps of rot grew back naturally on the arm, despite no longer being able to produce rot as efficiently anymore, the arm still blistered with some anyways.


    "I would wager that this undead is fairly new, very new in fact, which is weird, being so intelligent from the get go, I would suppose that it is an incarnated undead, that it kept all of its memories and personality from when it was alive, but its behaviour says otherwise, still, undeads like skeleton and zombies, when they have great intellect, they usually stay low, move to a ce reeking of death and wait there to naturally reinforce themselves¡­" the man spoke thoughtfully.


    He was an experienced death hunter, one specialised in dealing with skeletons and such, he carried a heavy warhammer with a peculiar shape, more resembling the sort of mallets used for constructing things rather than a weapon.


    It was as easy as breathing for him to tell that something was off with this undead¡¯s behaviour.


    "Huh, could it have been ordered by something higher ced than itself?" the woman tilted her head a bit, not afraid as the arm suddenly tried jerking around and grabbing her face.


    "I have to say though, doesn¡¯t that death force seem weird?" she added after a few moments, death force was something she wasmonly confronted with, her specialtyid in culling ghouls of all sorts.


    Death force was always roughly the same thing, it had much less differences between individualspared to life force, this one however, it felt distinctively different.


    "Reminds me of the death force I sensed back in Gruyere ins¡­" her expression under her mask twisted.


    The man¡¯s face simrly turned awfully serious, as though he had just been announced a terrible news.


    "Are you certain about this Latir-e-se?" he looked down on the undead¡¯s arm.


    "It¡¯s not quite the same thing, but it does share something with Vwoldtnir"


    The two stared at one another for a second before someone else spoke up.


    "Are you saying this measly skeleton¡¯s death force is simr to that of the Grand Ghoul¡¯s? One of the oldest undead lords?" three people had showed up, all three dressed simrly to one another.


    The speaker was the man in the middle, he had dark hair reaching down to his nape, to his right, the creepy vampire huntress, Rummy was flicking her lenses on and off repeatedly for no particr reason, to his left, an older man that resembled him a fair bit, with grey hair of the same length, but with beard, he were a hat concealing his eyes.


    "Tappduur, Latir-e-se" he greeted them with a nod.


    "¨¦chs, Rummy, Abraham" the two greeted them in the same manner.


    Robert was wrong with his assessment of the death hunters, vampire hunters were in fact, the most numerous group amongst them, those that focused on any other sort were actually much more rare.


    "I only caught a glimpse of Vwoldtnir back then, he didn¡¯t even bother to fight or say a word, he just went away without a care" which was a good thing, back then, when she had just begun as a death hunter, the mere presence of a lord had frozen her in ce.


    "So, if you are correct, I suppose we can assume that this skeleton has the potential to be a lord?" ¨¦chs rested his chin in his hand, this certainly brought the whole situation several notches higher.


    "We can hardly explore the Elephant Cave System without breaking an ankle and turning into minced meat by falling, so what do we do? We can¡¯t possibly hope to guard every cave entrance connected to it either" the old man, Abraham spoke his piece, already thinking about ughtering the supposedly, would-be lord.


    "We can try to find the ce it came from, it might be crawling with other undeads" Rummy raised her hand at that idea, waiting from everyone to acknowledge her, she coughed a few times and pointed into the distance.


    "I heard from a group of four adventurers that there was a dungeon discovered just a little while before the undead showed up, it is considered mostly empty but not everything was checked out" the death hunters looked at one another.


    "Let¡¯s go then" ¨¦chs led the way and everyone followed without questioning much, Tappduur nailed the arm right back to the barn.


    ¡¯Mmh, I don¡¯t know who thed that did it first is, but he must have some impressive arms¡¯ he praised whoever had subdued the stray limb first before going his way.


    They went past the burnt down tavern, a temple of booze reduced to ashes was quite the poor sight, guards were busy trying to get the charred corpses back without letting them crumble to pieces.


    The easiest had been that of the owner, since he had been thrown outside, the fire that killed him had died off faster than that of his business, the bodies inside had mostly been left as nothing but charcoal skeletons.


    "This skeleton is also not afraid of fire, they are generally wary of getting burnt, this one doesn¡¯t seem to have weakness for it" Tappduur muttered to himself, noting that his fiery breath may be of little use against it, where they to somehow cross paths one day.


    Just as he finished speaking, he felt a drop of water hitting the top of his bald, crimson red head.


    It had begun raining.

 Chapter 53: A Taste

    The sound of falling rain reverberated on the walls of the cavern, Only it filled the quiet expanse of this underground at the moment, a dweller of those deep caves moved around on its own two feet, not making use of its two, elongated arms meant specifically to walk around on all four.


    It was carrying the dead body of a bat, reaching a wide open space, the ceiling covered with threatening stctites, the walls covered in sharp gypsum crystal, the ground uneven, covered in jagged rocks.


    The monster¡¯s feet and shoulders were covered in shallow cuts, they were umting as its cold body could no longer regenerate from its wounds, but it was of no importance either way.


    Others of its kind would sometimes spot it, but they never took long to realise that it would be best not to approach or call out to it, it seemed as though it had been infected with a disease of some sort.


    Their natural instinct told them that it was best to keep away.


    Endlessly wandering the confusing maze-like caves, squeezing its body through gaps that should be much too small, contorting its body in horrific ways without any acknowledgement, it spent its days catching insects, bats and whatever made the mistake of being in its presence.


    Arriving before a pile of corpses, some of them having already begun the natural process of decay, the monster reeled its way and chest back, a few guttural noises came from within, he threw up a stream of oily blood, apanied by dozens of insects and other of its catches.


    ¡¯This shall be sufficient¡¯ Loimos thought, his remnant skull piece forcing itself against the inside of the creature¡¯s belly, without meaning to, Loimos, by his influence, had converted the corpse he was parasitising into some sort of pseudo-undead.


    Meaning that it wasn¡¯t affected by the natural cycle of putrefaction, nor was it being slowly dissolved due to its close proximity with his death force and rot.


    It seemed like Loimos¡¯s intention to use the monster¡¯s hollow carcasse as his ride for a while had somehow done something specific to it.


    Heid with his back resting on the pile as his skin suit bursted with rot and blood, a true downpour, splurging everywhere it could reach as the corpses were engulfed, shifting to rot and converting into miasma generators, the miasma created was dense, and seemed to refuse to spread out, forming a cocoon all around what had been left of Loimos after his previous fight.


    Where he had been severely beaten down without any room for counterattack, he had certainly lost that battle, but he hadn¡¯t been destroyed, he had also learned many more things, he wouldn¡¯tmit the same mistakes again.


    Since it was definitely obvious to the living that he was an undead, he wouldn¡¯t bother with staying covert, let them call for their troops, let they bring forth the practitioners of life arts or whatever they may call it, he would unleash a flood of miasma directly from below.


    He would start from here, and allow the dark mist to fill up the underground.


    The stable environment of the caves was soon to be disturbed.


    _____________


    "It¡¯s here" Abraham was the first to speak up about it, as soon as the small group of death hunters made it inside the dungeon, all of them could clearly sense the obscene amount of death miasma nesting below.


    "But how do we get down here? If the report is to be trusted, the only possibility found to get deeper was through a flooded passageway, I am not too keen on going for a dip" ¨¦chs tapped on the wall to his right, hoping to hear that it was hollow behind.


    "It¡¯s quite deep underground too" added Rummy, staring straight down at the floor with her lenses clicked on.


    "Well, it was also said that there was a space above, right? So-" Latir-e-se pointed up, contributing to the collective thinking when she spotted Tappduur raising his hammer up above his head.


    A wave of dust struck them all, blowing their mantles and robes back as they could only stand by and watch as their red-skinnedpatriot just began doing some unpromptedndscaping directly inside the dungeon.


    A brick fell directly on the top of his head, he didn¡¯t even notice and just kept on pounding


    "No bother! The ground is fragile!" he yelled with a smile.


    "This is fragile?" Abraham gave a light kick into a brick split in half, it might not be exceptionally durable for someone of his level and strength but digging down with nothing but a hammer and elbow grease was still a bit too much.


    "Don¡¯t bother, he¡¯s a demon, his base physicality is much higher than us" the masked hunter waved her limp hand in the air dismissively.


    One would expect that the deeper one went, the harder the soil would be, but it seemed like the dungeon was expanding far beyond what the eye could see, everything was made from that same grey rock, which Tappduur had absolutely no issue grinding into dust with his swings.


    After a while, he suddenly stopped after carving a nice, natural staircase of debris.down onto the ground.


    "It¡¯s here" he called out.


    The miasma was seeping through thin cracks.


    "That¡¯s pretty dense alright, not awfully powerful, but definitely more proactive and aggressive than regr miasma, it feels like anything thates from that undead is imparted with its will or something" the demon rubbed his chin, quite surprised, it maycked in sheer force, but it made up by simply having unusual properties.


    All of them brought their two hands together, making some sort of weird hand sign, and speaking a few words:


    "Life, defend from corruption" and just like that, their life force acted on its own and spread out of their bodies, onto their skins and gear.


    They broke through thestyer of rock and stepped into the small world Loimos had brought to its knees.


    A world devoid of life.

 Chapter 54: Dead Expanse

    "This is¡­ What is this?" the death hunters were left in awe at what they saw, peering through the dense coat of miasma, they could sense immense formations of bones and rot, cascades of toxic blood, and beings emitting deep death force, not quite like that of the undead, but awfully close.


    What was happening here was not the expected result of death miasma corrupting the area, there were only two possibilities when such mist was unleashed and remained in ce, either everything would turn barren and fall apart, or something new would sprout, vegetations-like things, an ecosystem with death at its center instead of life.


    This wasn¡¯t quite what was happening here however, the ground was shifting, as though it had first destroyed everything, and then begun remodelling everything to suit its needs, thendscape had nothing inmon with what it was before.


    There was no moreke, the ground had turned soft and mushy, a thinyer of moss growing atop the rotten soil, Tappduurid a foot on the surface, he felt himself sink down to his ankle.


    It had be an enormous swamp, the dark-coloured blood rushed out of the ground, threatening to eat right through his boots, theyer of life force shielded him however, the miasma, as though possessing its own intelligence, retracted from him, not wasting itself trying to damage an untouchable living.


    "Terrific" Rummy spoke in an almost humorous tone, but a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face.


    They could feel the rough outlines of the constructs hidden within the fog, but they would have to get there to actually know what they were.


    One thing they weren¡¯t aware of, was that the area had gotten muchrger, the miniature world brightened by a false sun used to be much smaller, and much more cubical in shape.


    The rot and miasma had carved out a new room with it as its base, it was now shaped like a dome, and most surprisingly, it seemed to be in the process of trying to replicate the fake star, rays of dark light would sometimes shine down from high above as its construction kept going.


    "Any idea what¡¯s going on?" ¨¦chs asked unconvincingly, he had read many outrageous things from the archives kept by the death hunters, he knew that undeads were a more than simply dangerous bunch, still, what he was bearing witness to wasn¡¯t amongst them.


    "Seed of a lord huh? I don¡¯t want to see what this thing will bloom into" Latir-e-se stepped forward, her soft steps allowing her to avoid sinking into the putrefied filth.


    Moving through the miasma, despite its special properties and apparent awareness, they didn¡¯t encounter any problem, they could sense that there were undeads moving in the distance, but they didn¡¯t approach.


    They instead moved toward the center, to the eye of the storm, most likely preparing for a stand-off.


    They passed by bone formations, somewhat resembling remains of massive creatures but clearly arranged in illogical ways, the skeletons were shaped more like ces to hide, outposts and areas to set up ambushes.


    There were also rot formations along the way, some resembling pirs, spewing blood into the air, creating rain in certain areas.


    The ground would sometimes erupt, throwing out rough balls of rot that would soon explode, it was all bizarre and somewhat off, it seemed as though it was doing test runs, trying out stuff.


    Arriving on more solid ground, they paid no mind to the moremon creations of death, ck flowers, trees and other vegetation were mimicked here, even mushrooms.


    They cranked their necks up to stare at the looming shadow that had be visible mere moments ago, a huge figure, dwarfing them all in sizes, taking more steps forward, it slowly became clearer and clearer.


    It was a gigantic, tree-like creation, its bark wasprised of some sort of segmented, bone tes, the whole thing seemed to be swirling a bit, as though something was trying to grow and break free from the side.


    Its branches were mostly barren of anything except for fruit-looking things, the branches extended beyond what they could perceive, the miasma was much thicker here, in fact, it seemed to grow denser higher up into the tree.


    The miasma generator, or at least, the main one, was situated somewhere on the tree.


    "Is that thing an undead?" Abraham questioned aloud, it possessed death force, but the simrity with the undead was present, still, it seemed a bit too much for a single, still weak skeleton to do, surely, the tree was its own thing.


    "I don¡¯t know about the tree, but those over there most likely" Tappduur readied his warhammer as dozens of small figures emerged in the distance, slowly circling around the death hunters.


    A fruit fell from the tree, bursting with miasma, another of those undeads emerged from within.


    "The lunatics of the underground tower better not get their greasy hands on this" Latir-e-se reached for something inside of her ample sleeve.


    The small undeads arrived within view, they seemed to be the animated remains of kobolds, lizardmen and goblins amongst other things, some of them seemed to be carrying weapons, including the one that had just emerged from the fruit.


    "Let¡¯s burn this down!" Tappduur bellowed with a wide grin as he charged right through the lesser undeads, trampling them without a care, aiming straight for the tree itself.


    The three vampire hunters pulled out bizarre weapons from gods knows where, carving through the undeads with ease, even simply punching them straight in the skull, bones were shattered and feeble, decaying flesh was blown apart under the force of their strikes.


    The masked hunter revealed her weapon, which turned out to be just as strange, if not more than the folding weapons of her three colleagues, it was a metallic whip, which could somehow be swung around just like an ordinary whip, but also turned into a rapier at a moment¡¯s notice.


    Although this weapon was more suited for carving up ghouls, it did its job perfectly against such weaklings.


    The demon man prepared to unleash his breath of mes upon the base of the tree, but held it in as he noticed something approaching from the side.


    Raising his weapon, he blocked all four strikesing his way, kicking the newly arrived undead away.


    Sizing it up, Tappduur nodded his head with a slight smile.


    The undead in question had an elongated skull toward the back, four arms and was simr enough in build to the death hunter.


    "We better get a hold on this guy soon" hemented aloud as the four-armed skeleton roared with intensity, throwing itself at the living in four of itself.


    The demon swung his hammer nonchntly, dispersing bones and shards in all directions.


    It was no match for him.

 Chapter 55: An Offer

    A skeletal arm rose from a mound of rot, soon followed by a skull and ribcage, the cavern was loud, much louder than it should be, howls and shrieks sounded throughout therge expanse of rocky tunnels and deadly drops.


    They didn¡¯t appear to be responding to one another, they were all directed toward the same direction, they surrounded the area Loimos had decided to recuperate his body in, though, it wasn¡¯t like they could just waltz in and start hitting up upside the head.


    His rot had spread out defensively, filling up the room and surrounding him as the cradle of miasma slowly reconstructed him.


    For now, his skull, torso area and left arm were the only things that had been put back together, even now, the process was continuing.


    Loimos looked into a seemingly random direction, it wasn¡¯t the cries directed at him that had convinced him to shift his position and pay attention to his surroundings.


    ¡¯The miasma was cleared¡¯ he quickly realised what this disturbance he had sensed was, as the miasma he had left behind in the miniature world was eradicated, not only could he distinctively know despite the distance separating him and his creation.


    But it came alongside a flood of information as well, not about what had happened there, but about the potential of his primeval rot.


    It was rather interesting, manifesting some rot in his bony palm, he tried to convert it into bones instead, the result wasn¡¯t immediate, in fact, he remainedpletely still, not doing anything else for several dozens of minutes.


    The rot did eventually turn into the desired thing, but it wasn¡¯t great, all he had done was change the material, not the shape or anything else, and it was a small piece too.


    Next, stillpletely ignoring the howlsing his way, he instead tried to change rot to miasma, it was easier to do, but he had no control over it, once transformed it began acting just like regr miasma.


    Since he was rooted in ce until he got the rest of his body back, he spent his time trying out a bunch of different things, and also perfecting what he could do at the moment, meanwhile, whatever was busy outside, yelling at him didn¡¯t stop at all.


    It sounded like they were taking shifts screaming at him too, perhaps they were hoping to scare the massive mass of rot that was leaking sticky blood by trying really hard.


    By all ounts, they probably weren¡¯t the smartest bunch down there, further proven when their incessant act of loudness attracted the attention of something from deeper into the caverns.


    Loimos had been listening to everything whilst simultaneously doing his own things, so the arrival of a set of heavy footsteps could hardly go unnoticed, at least to Loimos¡¯s discerning, undead sense of hearing.


    The monster¡¯s outside however, were too self-absorbed in their useless endeavour to notice the metal clunks of the newly arrived challenger.


    It was something one would be expecting down there, it was a knight, or at least, it looked like one.


    The way the iron sounded made it fairly obvious to any keen listener that this knight was made of nothing but iron.


    The skinny, hairless ape-looking creatures outside only noticed the knight after he cleaved one of their own in half, prompting them to switch the target of their shouts.


    They seemed intent on using their voices for everything that came up, as though it was the solution to everything they could ever encounter.


    Truthfully, these monsters weren¡¯tpletely braindead, the targets of their cries were supposed to experience some sort of mind anguish, they actually innately possessed the ability to rattle the mind of their targets directly.


    Making them a great obstacle for anyone trying to explore those caves, they never let anything they had begun attacking alone, it would persist until either their target, or them, had died.


    Unfortunately, today wasn¡¯t their lucky day.


    Undead¡¯s were well known for their immunity to such parlour tricks, and the knight didn¡¯t even have a mind to target, so they were looking real stupid right now.


    Thankfully, none of their targets would bother mocking them, the knight was missing an arm and was truthfully, looking pretty miserable, yet, the mind-trembling apes didn¡¯t stand a chance.


    With a kick, the living armour stomped on one of them, those that received some brain matter directly on their faces stopped a moment to reconsider their actions, but they resumed shouting anyway.


    It took a few more of them getting brutally ughtered before they decided that fleeing was also an option, they were much faster than the knight, which didn¡¯t seem willing to exceed his walking speed, watching the apes retreat before turning to the rotten mass, and staying still.


    It simply stood there, it didn¡¯t swing its sword, it didn¡¯t do anything but stand there as though waiting for Loimos to let it in.


    It remained frozen in ce for a few minutes before its helm twitched and began carving something into the rot.


    Loimos let it do its thing, not filling the gaps in the rot for now, not only did it seem like it was trying to do something other than destroy, it also had the advantage of not being alive, a must if one was seeking diplomatic rtions with Loimos.


    The armour was writing, it was actually carving words, for some reason, an empty suit of armour knew how to write.


    An armour without any mind or soul could do something the majority of the human poption couldn¡¯t, truly, life wasn¡¯t nearly as good as it tried to appear as.


    After writing its message, the empty suit of steel moved away with heavy steps.


    Going back to the deeper parts of the caves, the armour somehow began making less and less noise as it went away, the noises of it moving around not reverberating against the surfaces all around.


    ¡¯Faraday awaits you¡¯ this was how the message began, it was then followed by a series of instructions on how to encounter this certain ¡¯Faraday¡¯.


    Though, he wasn¡¯t given any good reason to do so.

 Chapter 56: Burning

    A true undead¡¯s senses are simply that much more superior to anything else, I believe that most of my readers are already familiar with the concept of the undead synesthesia, whilst simr to what we, as living, experience when we speak of synesthesia, for the dead, it is much different.


    It is not a mere impression, not only does a pure undead possess the five basic senses, which can not be impaired through natural means, if at all, as well as armed with ¡¯dark vision¡¯ and ¡¯darkness awareness¡¯, they can feel everything about someone based on just one sense.


    By this, I mean that if a pure undead heard me moving around, it would be able to ¡¯see¡¯, ¡¯smell¡¯, ¡¯feel¡¯ and even ¡¯taste¡¯ me, it is as though all of their senses were merged into a singr thing.


    Coupled with ¡¯darkness awareness¡¯, which allows an undead to extend a sixth sense through the dark in every direction, I would wager that no other being could possibly bepared in that department, though, as I have to repeat, the existence of a pure undead is purely theoretical.


    That is all just extraption based on the analysis of many undeads.


    Extract of ¡¯Undeads For Dummies: What Is A ¡¯True¡¯ Undead?¡¯ by Ohith of the Underground Tower.


    The tree burnt to cinders, the awful smell of cooked, rotten flesh invaded the air, despite being protected by bone tes, the gigantic imitation failed to withstand Tappduur¡¯s mes, it soon crumbled as the miasma already began to thin.


    It was rather fast, the entire ce quickly began to crumble to pieces, as though the tree fastened the end of this little world of nothing but death just to try and bury them alive.


    Running at top speeds, they weren¡¯t in much danger however, the dome copsed on itself much after they had all already made it out of there, the entire space under the earth filling up with debris as all traces of the rot and miasma vanished into thin air.


    It was dubious whether one could even find evidence that such a thing had taken ce here, the disappearance of it was immacte, too perfect.


    "Anyone sense anything else?" ¨¦chs could sense nothing, he asked the others just to be certain, but it seemed like this dome underneath the earth had been the only ce the undead had spread its vile corruption in.


    "We just need to find the skeleton now" Latir-e-se shrugged her shoulders, not believing much in their chances of aplishing that, it would require an exceptional amount of luck to somehow stumble upon this particr undead.


    The sound of something clicking repeatedly attracted everyone¡¯s attention.


    "Actually, I got a good grasp of its death force now, we just need to follow the trail" Rummy¡¯s odd sses shined with a faint light.


    "Girl, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that we can¡¯t get down and explore the caves willy-nilly" Abraham flicked her in the back of the head.


    "What¡¯s the big deal with this hole in the ground anyways? Aren¡¯t there dozens of cave entrances leading deeper into it? We don¡¯t have to jump down the first ravine we find like a bunch of morons¡­" she pped the old man¡¯s hand away before he could flick her again.


    "True, but that doesn¡¯t change much, the caves are unpredictable and barely any maps exist, not that it matters, the terrain probably changed a lot since thest time someone attempted something down there" Tappduur thought back a few decades back, then, a few ghoul hunters had braved the caverns again, believing that this was where Vwoldtnir was holed up.


    It wouldter turn out that they were way off, but that wasn¡¯t what was of importance.


    The caves may seem empty and deste, but certain areas are inhabited by treacherous and terrible creatures, not to mention, going down there wouldn¡¯t be a short trip in the least, nor would it be easy, there were no telling what sort of narrow passages one would need to squeeze through to get anywhere.


    Food and water would be an issue quickly, being underground, it was possible for tunnels to copse as well, all in all, the caves on their own was already a nigh insurmountable problem.


    The demon remembered what had happened, he snapped his fingers.


    "Abraham, you were active as well when the ghoul huntersunched a hunt down there, do you remember what the survivors reported?" he addressed the old vampire hunter, who was currently holding up rummy by the back of her cor, much like a cat.


    "Huh?" never heard of it, I was busy trying to track down Nosferatu back then.


    "That fucker¡­" he narrowed his eyes and cursed under his breath as he thought about the ugly mug of that vampire lord


    "Guess I¡¯ll have to do it then, herm"


    "In short, there may not be any undead lord down there, but there is definitely an undead of importance, The deeper parts of the caves, or at least a portion, is actually a dungeon I believe, filled with living armours and skeletons of a kind never seen before then" Tappduur had been active back then as well, however, much like Abraham, he had been more focused on his own activities.


    Namely, trying to find a way to get past a seal, which he had since then abandoned.


    "Oh wait, I heard that a dungeon was down there, supposedly, but doesn¡¯t it have an entrance all the way to the surface?" Latir-e-se repositioned her mask.


    "Which is filled with living armours" added ¨¦chs.


    "Ah, so we can just get through the dungeon and find the undead from there" Rummy offered a solution but everyone just shook their heads, knowing that it was also a dead end, this dungeon had a clear ending portion, which definitely didn¡¯t lead that deep into the earth.


    Either the dungeon had somehow been split in two, or there were just two different dungeons right next to one another.


    Not that it mattered, unlike the one they were in right now, the dungeon they were speaking of was the real deal, you couldn¡¯t just bust in and out through the walls easily, not to mention, it was far away, much too far away for them to get there and hope the undead was still around by then.


    "The caves are simply too dangerous, spread the word of that undead still, we need people to be wary of skeletons until it is dealt with"


    The death hunters wouldn¡¯t go after Loimos, losing lives to snuff out the death of one of the dead was simply counter productive.

 Chapter 57: Putrid Gift

    A heavy sigh made its presence known, it was noon and today, the sun was rather gentle.


    Milo was seated in a chair, overlooking the still fresh soil covering the final resting ce of David, his foster father, Helena sometimes went by, the two of them had gotten busy taking care of the fields, much the same as many other people.


    The amount of deaths that had urred was not to be underestimated, many farnds had been left without owners, with only few avable to take over, many had to be harvested early to avoid unnecessary losses.


    Milo had been nning on taking over the old man¡¯s crops, but Helena had had a surprising proposal for him.


    He sighed once more, resting his head in between his hands.


    "I- I don¡¯t really know what to do David, I don¡¯t know what you would have told me to do, and honestly, you are the only person whose opinion I ever bothered truly listening too, I don¡¯t think you were ever wrong on anything that mattered" he said to no one.


    "Get this: Helena thinks I shoulde along with her, not to the city, she says that she will be going to some sort of school or academy or whatever, I apparently have potential in her eyes, I think Helena wants me to go there because she is under the impression that I want to avenge you"


    "Maybe I should be insulted that she thinks I am so stupid, but I am actually looking forward to spending more time with her, would you want me to hunt down that undead who killed you? Does it even matter? They are nothing but soulless husks, I don¡¯t feel like I can hold one ountable for its actions" he scratched the back of his neck, realising that he was sounding quite different from usual.


    "I am just so sad" he then blurted out.


    No one could respond to him, he shook his head and stood up, retrieving the chair he had brought, what was he even doing here? Speaking to the dead? It was useless, David wouldn¡¯t want him to waste his time doing something so meaningless.


    Turning around, Milo began to move back toward the barn, he was going to tell Helena that he was going to agree to go with her, it was simply the right thing to do, David had pretty much begged him to try and get with his daughter, and also, Milo had to admit that he was very much fond of her.


    Two birds one stone, David would have loved this.


    "I¡¯ll make you proud! Just you watch!" Milo raised his fist and smiled up at the sky, David may not have been very pious, but he had surely risen up to heaven.


    ¡¯At least I hope so-¡¯


    "Mmh?" something attracted Milo¡¯s attention, he turned around, facing back toward the two graves, where David and histe wife were supposed to be resting for the rest of time.


    He loosened his hold on the chair he was carrying, confused for a moment.


    "A mole?" he hoped for the best as he stood still, looking down upon the small, trembling mound of dirt.


    But there was no point, his hope was nothing more than wishful thinking, he could already tell the truth the instant he hadid his eyes on the grave.


    A pale, emaciated finger protruded from the dirt, the whole hand soon followed grasping at the ground as a familiar but distorted figure emerged from beneath.


    Mouth agape, orbits partially hollowed, the zombie still looked like David nheless, Milo stared, his eyes wide open and bloodshot, gritting his teeth, he approached the newly arisen undead fearlessly.


    The zombie did not advance after breaking out of his confine, he looked around himself in a confused manner before locking in on the living moving toward its position.


    Letting out a terribly hoarse cry, it rushed toward Milo, not an ounce of realisation struck the empty husk of David, Milo was left no choice but to desecrate the corpse of his adoptive father, it was the only way he had of returning him back to his grave.


    "..."


    Milo didn¡¯t make a sound, he silently did what needed to be done, forced to destroy the head of David to finally put him to rest, he buried him back and hid the signs of struggle, not wanting Helena to know her father had been resurrected as an undead.


    He himself would have liked to never have to be faced with this, ttening the dirt with his bare hands, his face covered in gore and hands covered in soil, sticking to his palms due to the rotten blood covering them.


    "Undead filth¡­"


    _________________


    Loimos finally emerged from his cocoon of rot, a wave of miasma following him as he exited the cold and filthy embrace, he was back in full.


    All around him, the hairless apes were already back, uncaring that some of theirs had been taken apart in the very spots they were standing, in fact, were it not for their proximity to his rot, their corpses would still be there.


    They kept on shouting and shouting without stopping, they weren¡¯t shocked by the fact that he was a skeleton, but they quickly grew appalled at the fact that he wasn¡¯t falling over and dying like any other of their targets would have.


    It still took them a while to put two and two together, Loimos had yet to move for he was busy inspecting the ape directly in front of him, this one wasn¡¯t hollering without stopping, it was just sitting there.


    Loimos could only suppose that it was their leader somewhat, not that it had any distinguishing features other than being a little bit taller.


    This ape was definitely not that much stronger than the rest.


    It made a sound, prompting the rest to grow silent and look at it.


    Then, it yelled once at Loimos, looking ridiculously regal and overbearing, it seemed like its superior strength didn¡¯t lie in brute strength, but merely in the potency of its mind-shaking shout.


    Loimos was unfazed, no reaction whatsoever to the attack, but he hadn¡¯t stood still, the moment he was certain that this monkey had nothing more than this, he ran forth, growing blood-filled ball of rot, he mmed it in between the ape leader¡¯s face and his skeletal palm.


    He writhed in pain as the ck blood dug into his skin, burning his soft bits with remarkable power, it wouldn¡¯t be lethal on its own, but a good bite to the nape would certainly be.


    The rest quickly dispersed without bothering about their leader.


    The skeleton threw the lifeless body into the rot cocoon for the miasma generator to consume and went on his way.

 Chapter 58: Teachings

    "You look awfully tired, are you sick?" Helena stuck the back of her hand against Milo¡¯s forehead.


    "Just having trouble sleeping, this is all new for me" he lightly chuckled.


    The two of them were standing side by side in front of an orb-like object, Helena gestured toward it.


    A distance away, a few others of simr orbs were resting, lined up and seemingly cared for extensively, for they all came in their own little boxes.


    Milo and Helena had finished up with what needed to be done at the farm, and had subsequentlye to the city, he didn¡¯t know what he was expecting exactly, but Milo had felt like the city looked nothing like his imagination.


    It was certainly better looking than the outside, but the streets were also quite filthy, and most residential areas felt quite crowded with buildings, as well as people of course, everything felt narrowed and tighter here.


    Milo felt like he shouldn¡¯t breath in too deep, lest the rising of his chest would prevent him from moving through the condensed masses of people going in every direction, the ease with which the inhabitants here weaved through was also quite the sight, he totally would have ended up stuck somewhere were it not for Helena¡¯s expertise of the area.


    She took him by the hand, which he appreciated in more than one aspect, and easily led him to a tall building, which was to say that it was simply taller than two-stories, absolutely unnecessarily enormous in his eyes.


    And here they had soon found themselves after going up all the way to thest floor and through a locked door, clearly, the orbs and whatever else were in this room were valuable.


    "Hum, where are your instructors?" he asked.


    "Oh, they barely evene by anymore, I am just practising the same stuff over and over again until I reach an eptable level" exining this to him, she picked up the closest orb and held it up.


    "Hold this with both your hands, don¡¯t drop it!" she carefully passed him the orb, keeping her own hands on it.


    Milo had no clue what she was doing, but Helena was running her mana through the orb to activate its effect.


    Removing her hands after a few seconds, the orb shined with a series of differently coloured lights for an instant each, some brighter than others.


    "Oh! Is this the thingy used to know someone¡¯s affinity?" Milo felt like he had just realised what it was.


    "No" she responded immediately.


    "That would be the orb over there, this one is meant to give an idea of your reserves in each of the energies, don¡¯t bother too much with those for now, most people, including myself, only know anything about mana" she waved off any questions and instead tapped the orb.


    "All that aside, your reserves are pretty good, my instructors always tell me how having a lot of mana is just a good thing when you are shit at manipting it, I think they just say this because they have so little themselves but they are certainly right" she put the orb back in ce and moved to another.


    Not stopping to say anything and instead using them all to check whatever it was that they each checked for Milo.


    Finally, she got to the one meant to assess affinities, it wasn¡¯t thest one in line, she was just messing with him because he was clearly most interested in this one.


    "The moment of truth, by the way, not having an affinity does not mean than an element is off-limit, far from it, it is just rmended to focus on the uses of basic mana and elements you have affinities for first, since it is much simpler and faster" she exined to him beforehand.


    Most people didn¡¯t have any affinity at all, or at least, such a small amount of affinity that it wasn¡¯t even registered, she was rather lucky having a great affinity for the wind element.


    "As you probably have heard, fire, water, wind and earth are the mostmon, as affinities but also because even without, they are rather easy to get a hang of, as long as you don¡¯t go too in depth that is, apparently, anything can be an element, but for those, having a good affinity is pretty much required to get anywhere" she rambled happily as she put the orb in his hands, repeating the same action as she had before.


    Taking a step back, she and Milo looked intensely at the orb, it didn¡¯t shine for a few moments, leading to them looking at each other, one feeling sorry for himself, the other sorry for him.


    The orb shined with a brilliant golden light for an instant, but the brightness was so strong that it couldn¡¯t be missed.


    It was then followed by a blue glow.


    "Oh! Th- Tha- What was that?" he stuttered for a few moments.


    Helena rubbed her chin, took a piece of paper and quickly wrote down a bunch of things.


    "So¡­ I am not sure what that was, it was bright and looked a lot like light, but it was very golden, gold? Light? Golden light? Somethingpletely different?" she admitted that she had not a single clue as to what his element was, all she knew was that it was an affinity for mana, as indicated by the blue glow that followed it.


    She handed him the piece of paper.


    "The various orbs inspected various aspects of your energies, and it seems like mana is the only viable option for you to focus on, you have above average or average in most categories straight from the start" she exined, only stopping when she noticed the confused look on his face.


    She raised an eyebrow, looked down at the piece of paper and then back up to him.


    "Ah¡­ Of course you can¡¯t read" she pped her forehead.


    "I can read all the signs around the vige¡­" Milo could somewhat read what was in front of him, or at least, he could have tried but the way Helena wrote and the way peasants wrote on their signs was like night and day.


    "Why is everything so tilted?" as it turns out, the way they wrote wasn¡¯t simply different, some of the letters were straight up not the same.


    "There is plenty of time before the academy opens, I¡¯ll teach you how to read and write properly" she gave him a thumbs up.


    Milo felt like this wouldn¡¯t be very enjoyable.

 Chapter 59: Faraday

    Loimos left this miasma generator to do its own thing as he began to go on the move, being the unappetising meal that he was, rare were the cave dwellers willing to engage him in any sort of manners, only the hairless monkeys seemed intent on flexing their mind powers on anyone within reach.


    Some insects seemed willing to try andy their eggs on the bits of rots protruding on his bones, none of them ever managed to do so, getting sucked into the rot and disappearing forever.


    Some scavengers and eaters of the dead briefly turned to him, but even to them, he would be a severe stomach ache.


    The lone undead retained a perfect memory of the words carved by the hollow suits of armour, the confusing nature of the underground did little to trouble him as he absolutely did not follow the instructions, preferring to approach from apletely different angle.


    There was no discarding that it was all a weird, but well thought-out trap, it could also be leading to a marvellous ce, nothing pointed in either direction very strongly.


    Squeezing his bones and growing rot all around him, he shoved himself in a tight tunnel, his suit of decay and oily blood serving as some sort of slug for him to force passage.


    Poking his head the other way, he spun his skull around multiple times as he analysed the area, there was a metallic structure, grand walls embedded deep into the stone, it seemed very much like the structure had forcefully manifested and pushed everything away to make space.


    The metal was pristine as well, not a single dent or blemish to be spotted anywhere, not only that, but it was quite fancy too, it was chrome, and would probably shine dazzlingly if exposed to light.


    Living armours just like the one from before were patrolling around, some seemingly movingpletely randomly whilst others repeated the same path over and over again without stopping.


    All of them showed some sign of damage, missing a limb or two, some missing even their heads, though since there was nobody under there, it didn¡¯t seem to impair them in the least.


    Most of them were quite dusty and filthy, but from what Loimos could see, they were made from the same chromatic metal as the walls.


    Loimos flinged a bit of rot at one of them, it showed no reaction whatsoever, he attempted the same thing with more volume and on different ones, the same thing everytime, these hollow knights definitely did not care about him, or his actions.


    Despite this, whenever anything bigger than a rat got a little bit too close, or watched in their direction for a second too long, they would squash whatever that thing was, leaving it for a swift scavenger to swoop in and im the prize before ending up in the same way.


    Loimos went back up into his rot slug, and moved to another spot to observe the area some more, once he arrived there, however, he just stepped out amidst the living armours, there were death forces signature inside the chrome walls.


    The silent guardians showed no reaction to his presence, allowing him to walk along the tall walls without obstruction, they reached quite high, seemingly higher than the cavern ceiling did, there was little way to tell just how enormous the inside truly was.


    Now, he just needed to find a way inside.


    Or not, an entrance just appeared out of nowhere, despite Loimos not doing anything in particr at all, he didn¡¯t step in immediately and instead took a look from the outside, the living armours weren¡¯t doing anything different, and nothing came rushing out to turn him into fine dust.


    "Come on now, just walk in" a voice sounding like two someone beating a block of iron to death with a digging bar, tone was mostly absent, it was easy to tell that it was no living speaking with pitiful vocal cords.


    Loimos was in presence of another undead, so he stepped inside and found himself in an unnecessarily wide and tall room,pletely barren of anything except for a throne in the very center, the building material was the same metal as before and nothing else, there were no signs of anything being welded together, so it had to be assumed that everything had been built as is.


    "Wee, wee! To my dungeon, my tomb, my prison and whatever else, what is your name?" sitting on the throne was a tall undead, well over two meters tall, two meters and thirty centimeters tall to be exact.


    It was a skeleton dressed in a robe reaching down to his ankles, and just like all else, both his bones and robes were made of the chromatic metal, Loimos really stuck out like a sore thumb.


    Especially since he was so bleak and decrepit looking, with ck blood leaking out from time to time.


    Loimos couldn¡¯t respond however, so he just cked his jaw.


    "Now what does that mean?"


    "Ahahah! Oh my, do you have neither the pale or death tongue?" the undead stood up from his seat and waltzed over to Loimos.


    "One with such perfect death force? How-" he ced his hand on Loimos¡¯s skull, seemingly getting the answer to his second question himself.


    "Not even a year? Brilliant! You are a greatd, though you are missing quite a bit" the metallic skeleton stepped back and put his hands behind his back. Stay tuned with freewebnovel


    "Aherm" he said aloud, clearly having a knack for theatrics.


    "I am Faraday, a god-ying battle mage from the times of yore, as well as our king¡¯s right hand, would you mind helping me break out of this jail, in exchange of my superb and wise teachings?" his eyes shined with grey me, once again chromatic.


    He had spread out his arms and got into a grand pose, and was currently maintaining it, awaiting a response from Loimos.


    The undead stood still for a few moments, going through every gesture he knew to find the most appropriate one.


    He gave a thumbs up, with all of the personality, character and charm he possessed, none.


    "Damn kid, your even less expressive than the minions I summon, they are nothing but mindless drones, I am simply bbergasted-"


    "But enough of useless banter! Let us begin, you¡¯ll be my protege, and I¡¯ll be your wise master"

 Chapter 60: Aspects Of Energy

    "I don¡¯t understand a thing" Milo could feel his mental energy being sapped for every second he spent trying to put every bit of information in order, thinking deeply about theoretical stuff wasn¡¯t his forte in the least.


    Good thing Helena was rather patient, though she was slowly starting to speak lower and lower, articting her every word to an absurd degree, doing her very best to make his brain understand.


    For some reason, someone had decided to split one¡¯s energy into more than ten whole parts, one¡¯s talent was measured by how good those ten things were at a base, most of the orbs had been used to that end.


    One could improve on each of those, but it did basically clearly point out the aspect in which one would always be weaker or stronger.


    Milo had thought that lectures on reading and writing were brutal, but it was child¡¯s ypared to the intricacies of the very basics of magic, he needed to understand what each of those ten things were, what they meant, how important they were in rtion to one another, how important it was to have advantages in certain areaspared to others, and how disadvantageous it was to face off against someone with advantages.


    "Alright Milo, we are gonna repeat what each of the categories is about, surely, you remember that? It is pretty much in the names" she put her hands on his shoulders, he shuddered, this sounded like a threat but it wasn¡¯t fear that made him tremble.


    ¡¯Oh crap¡¯ he swallowed his saliva, they had just begun the lessons early in the morning, Helena had divided the day into various lessons, and the basics of magic had been running on for a while, longer than she had expected.


    Unfortunately, Milo¡¯s apparent smartness didn¡¯t apply to any sort of academics, he was all about live practice, but one couldn¡¯t just try shooting spells around without proper theoretical teachings and knowledge.


    He felt his body heat up, doing his best to prevent himself from sweating like a pig being roasted, he put his all in focusing, the categories were easy.


    ¡¯They are easy, I know that¡¯ he told himself, trying to convince himself.


    Helena breathed out heavily, her hands still holding Milo in ce, he wasn¡¯t going to go anywhere.


    "Alright Milo, first, what are the two types of maniption?" she calmly asked.


    ¡¯I know this¡­ Don¡¯t say something stupid¡­¡¯


    "Inner and outer!" he stated with utter confidence, waiting for confirmation.


    "Indeed, mind telling me more about each?" she pressed for more, pressing his shoulders tighter as well, she really had the hands of a farmer, he quite liked it but he couldn¡¯t afford to be distracted right now, else those hands end up doing something else.


    "Yes¡­"


    "Inner maniption of mana is the most basic, and most important, it is all about controlling one¡¯s own mana inside of the body, most mages only focus on weaving mana from the inside, shaping it before constructing the spell and shooting it out¡­"


    "Outer maniption is more of a specialised category, generally reserved for higher tiered mages, or for people particrly gifted in it, it allows the usage of ambient mana to form spells, it is much simpler to form spells at other locations that way, and is a requirement for learning a zone spell" he recited what he had learned, even though he didn¡¯t actually understand certain things.


    Helena still found his memorisation to be satisfactory this time, he heaved a sigh of relief as he felt her grasp rxing.


    "Now, capacity?" she asked without waiting much at all, cutting his relief short.


    Thankfully, this one spoke for itself, and didn¡¯t have much to speak off, it was but the amount of mana one possessed, this one was hard to improve on its own, though the system had no problem improving that aspect, the system and its own intricacies was also on the list of things Milo would have to learn, and he wasn¡¯t looking forward to it.


    Efficiency, recuperation, output, speed and perception were also fairly obvious, Milo had to admit he had never seen things that way, having awful talent in one category could really cripple a mage with otherwise really good capabilities, one could be great in all categories, but if they had terrible efficiency, they would just use all of their mana on just a few simple spells.


    It might not be enough to make one unable to be great, but it would very much be like trying to run but with someone hugging your leg.


    Milo was lucky to not be below average in any category, his learning curve wouldn¡¯t be impaired by these, though his poor learning abilities probably would.


    Now, limit, transmutation, resistance, trait and internal or external were a bit less obvious, and Milo found himself unable to remember what thest three were referring to.


    "Well, that¡¯s better than before, good job" Helena praised him, pping his shoulders.


    "Trait is a very special category, having any sort of trait in one¡¯s energy is rather rare, for example, it can be that someone¡¯s mana is attuned to a certain element, or is of an element normally, it can also be any other specificities of one¡¯s personal mana, you and I don¡¯t have any, but recognising someone who does is apparently rather simple, but we would need to meet one to test that" she exined it again, sitting next to him.


    "As for internal and external, I have been told that some consider having external mana is a trait, but just assume it isn¡¯t, most people have internal mana, having external mana just means that it overflows from one¡¯s body constantly, that¡¯s all" she pushed a piece of paper and a pen to him.


    "Now, write it all down, you have until tomorrow" Milo paled.


    ¡¯It never ends!¡¯ he didn¡¯t feel so good.


    "By the way Milo, where do you want to sleep? There are two rooms" she switched the subject, he turned to her thoughtfully.


    "What¡¯s the difference?"


    "One is free, I sleep in the other" she, ever so casually, said.


    Milo had a mild heart attack for a moment, not sure whether this was a very alluring offer or a very hrious joke.


    He had to use his full mental capacity to answer that one in a timely manner.


    Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e¡¯m-p| y r


    "I would very much like to share the same bed as you"

 Chapter 61: Glow

    He tried his best and was honest.


    "Maybe another time" Helena had responded, Milo was still thinking about it as he slept all by himself in his own room, staring up at the ceiling with an empty gaze.


    ¡¯Damn¡­¡¯


    ¡¯She didn¡¯tugh or say no though¡¯ he closed his eyes, trying to catch some sleep instead of going through scenarios in his head, he had tried his best to write properly, and apart from having a horrendous handwriting, he believed to have done fairly well.


    As his mind cleared and his breathing slowed, he slowly and seamlessly began to transition into a nice, and cosy slumber.


    The bed he was in was definitely much morefortable than anything he had ever been in before.


    The image of David¡¯s decayed face shed in his mind.


    He found himself wide awake in a second.


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    Completely livid for a second until he paid attention to his surroundings, despite what it had appeared, it was already morning.


    Milo shook his head, forcing the traumatising image out of his mind as he put his feet down on the ground, he found it difficult to just force himself to put something to the back of his mind, so he began reciting what he was supposed to be learning aloud.


    "Inner and outer maniption, limit, efficiency, capacity¡­" he recited what he actually knew, Helena had spoken of a lot of other stuff, but she hadn¡¯t gone much farther than just telling him those things existed.


    What he had actually learned was solely the various categories used to ssify the raw talent of a mage, in practice, those things didn¡¯t matter quite as much when the variety of possibilities and alternate usages were pretty much limitless.


    He sighed and looked outside, the first rays of the sun were quite pleasing on the skin, he continued to move his lips as he kept on speaking to himself.


    "¡­And perception" he finished, his mind wandering to another ce nearly immediately.


    ¡¯I wonder what¡¯s most effective against undeads¡­¡¯


    _____________


    "Nothing is more dangerous to us than life force" Faraday waved his arms around, his ample sleeves slinging from side to side as his bony arms allowed them much freedom of movement.


    "Though, even if it is our bane, we can also resist and counter it with our own death force, though it will always be worth our attention, a well ced st of life and we are done for, at least for most of us" the chrome skeleton walked in circles around Loimos, who just stood there perfectly still.


    Making a much better impression of a dead body than Faraday.


    "Your death force is quite special, in fact, I can say with certainty that you are a special undead in many ways, you know, one thing that is pretty much constant, is that when an undead grows in power, they start to develop a personality or ego of their own, which not only makes them less undead-like ironically, but it is also the gateway for a undead to be one who lives in death" he struck his open palm with a fist.


    Loimos didn¡¯t move.


    "Those who live in death are nothing more than livings that have attained undeath, thankfully, this antithesis makes them weak, except for Sun-Walker" Faraday shook his head, it wasn¡¯t the time to speak of this.


    "Your mana, every energy you possess, every facet of your being is truly dead, normally, a soul, a mind and energies can neither be alive nor dead, I had yet to encounter any exception to that rule, until today" he gestured toward Loimos, his metallic bones grinding against one another.


    "Do you know the categories by which the talent of someone is measured? It is most typically used for mages since mana is by far the mostmon one, perhaps not anymore though¡­ I haven¡¯t been out of there in quite a while, in any case, it can be used to do the same with death force" Loimos responded by swinging his skull from side to side, he had never even heard of such a thing.


    "Well, let me take a look" nothing seemed to happen for a minute as both of the skeletons just stood motionless as skeletons typically did.


    Faraday pped his hands in appreciation, it was simply wonderful, inspecting Loimos only revealed that the battle mage was more than right in his first impression, he could tell that the undead in front of him was truly the epitome.


    It wouldn¡¯te easily, but it was easy for Faraday to tell that Loimos was built to use death force to its maximum potential, it was so pristine and perfect, he wouldn¡¯t have any use for mana and the likes, and yet, the special properties of his other energies made it easy for them to be converted into even more death force.


    ¡¯He might actually be able to attain it¡­¡¯ had he been able to, Faraday would have smiled manically, few things could make him want to do such a thing truthfully.


    "Allow me to exin everything that I know, but first, I need you to unlock at least one of the tongues" the metal undead would have liked to begin right there and then but Loimos¡¯s mutism would slow them down, also, he was quite curious what he would actually sound like.


    "The death tongue is the most important for us, it will allow you to instantaneously learn thenguage of the dead, it is also one of the greatestnguages to be used when speaking incantations or anything else requiring spoken words"


    "The pale tongue is much less useful, but most undeads, as they be stronger and awaken their ego, tend to gravitate toward it, most of those that live in death are only able to learn this one as well, if you ever see an undead rising and it can instantly use the pale tongue, kill it for it is a living retaining their memories"


    Faraday began exining a bunch of things, but most importantly, he revealed that the learning of the two tongues was quite random for regr undeads.


    "I shall aid you in this aspect, try reading this" Faraday manifested a thin te of chromatic metal with a wave of his hand, glowing symbols written upon it.


    The sight of those made Loimos¡¯s hollow sockets re up with the usual purple glow, Faraday¡¯s jaw almost went agape as he saw this, yet another thing he had never heard of, an undead whose eyes light up with a light rather than a me.

 Chapter 62: Try it

    Milo was able to recite every category and their importance this time, without a hitch, Helena nodded approvingly.


    "I lied actually" she said with a smile, pointing at Milo.


    "What?"


    "I lied about the number of categories, there is one more actually, any idea?" Milo raised an eyebrow, his face scrunching up as he thought deeply.


    "Did you forget about it?"


    Helena coughed and averted her gaze.


    "Certainly not, just a little trick to get your brain working a bit¡­" she waved it off rapidly and instead questioned him again.


    "I honestly have no idea, heat of mana?" he tried something random.


    "Range, it is range! Find exclusive stories on mvl


    Everyone got a different range within which they can interact with mana, but there are no orbs to test that aspect, if someone has a wide range, then they can counteract having low resistance by keeping some control over their spells, which, by the way, is easier than it sounds, since spells made from one¡¯s own inner mana are easier to manipte from a distance, so you don¡¯t have to be great at outer maniption for it to be possible" she drowned him in a deluge of information without mercy as she reached for an obscenelyrge book behind her.


    "Now, we¡¯ll go over the system, how do you view the system?" she swiftly moved on to another subject, one that was an even bigger can of worms than magic.


    "Well, I see one red bar and a bunch of abstract symbols, no clue what each of those are about though, I never bothered to find out either" the system was something everyone and everything possessed, it was a constant, a rule which had yet to find its exception.


    Everyone technically was equal in front of the system, it was simultaneously incredibly consistent and overwhelmingly chaotic at times, in most cases however, one could trust in its consistency.


    Everyone interacted with the system differently however, Milo only had a very basic one, it was of the visual kind and wasn¡¯t very user-friendly at all, in the amount of information it disyed, it was rather generous however.


    Helena handed him a knife, which she pulled out from one of her pockets.


    "Try cutting your finger a bit, keep an eye on your system" she instructed, he found it a bit difficult to willfully cut himself but he eventually managed, seeing the red bar decrease by a slight bit.


    "This means that the red bar represents your ¡¯HP¡¯" she made quotation marks in the air.


    "How many of those weird symbols do you have exactly?" having knowledge of ¡¯HP¡¯ was rather basic.


    "Sixteen" he responded after carefully counting them, having had to take care of crops and selling them sometimes, he at least knew how to count and basic mathematics.


    "Ah, it must be the stats then, is there really nothing else?" she seemed quite impressed with what he said.


    There was nothing else his system seemed willing to divulge.


    Helena began exining a bunch of things in length, cramming Milo¡¯s mental space relentlessly, he did his best not to space out but it was honestly horrific just how many things she was exining about, all the while saying things like:


    "That isn¡¯t certain though"


    "There was two sides to this, the debate is rather heated I have been told"


    "No one agrees on the actual number"


    "This is just spection"


    "It can vary from person to person"


    On and on, etcetera and etcetera.


    Without Milo noticing, the day went by with Helena still exining things just as energetically as she had been at the start.


    ¡¯No way she actually finds this enjoyable¡¯ Milo could hardly think straight any longer, his thoughts muddled by everything he had been told today.


    "We will be continuing with all the theoretical stuff, writing, reading and such for a few more weeks, then we¡¯ll begin with live magic practice" she hammered thest nail in the coffin ruthlessly.


    His face fell forward on the desk he was sitting on, crumpling the papers he had taken notes upon.


    Helena tapped him on the back gently.


    "Don¡¯t be disheartened, the pain is mandatory" her encouragement didn¡¯t help, but looking up at her rough, but cute face, he felt like he at least had to do it for one reason.


    ¡¯Yes, it¡¯s absolutely worth it¡¯ his gaze went down from her face, Helena didn¡¯t seem to mind.


    The next few weeks went by in a sh, Milo did his best to learn everything as quickly as possible, Helena kept on happily teaching him the most obscure and nonsensically difficult things known to man, she even began speaking of history at one point.


    Apparently, she wasn¡¯t satisfied with the abject theories of magic and system, she had even begun dabbling into the specific theories for other energies despite not using them and began reading on subjects that would definitely not be of much use to her.


    Milo couldn¡¯t wrap his head around why she would willingly subject herself to all of this, but it certainly revealed something, there had been no pain for her in the learning of all of this, it was her element.


    Today was the day he would attempt to manipte mana, not make any spells or anything, he would just try to manipte his inner mana for the next few days until his control was sufficient enough for Helena to allow him to try a spell.


    "Alright, rx, breathe in and out and focus, as long as you manage to get a hold of your inner mana once, you should be able to do it much more easily after" Helena put up her palm against his chest.


    "I¡¯ll begin by manipting your mana for you, focus on the how it feels" she instructed as she did exactly that, Milo almost yelped out loud as he felt it, it was incredibly bizarre, it was like some sort of frozen snake thing was crawling amidst and through his guts, the feeling slowly made its way throughout his whole body, down into his legs down to his toes, into his arms and all the way to his fingertips, even into his brain and eyes.


    It was disorienting, but it was nothing more than a feeling and he managed to stand still without making a fool out of himself, he realised that mana truly traversed his entire body, it was everywhere all at once.


    "Mana cane from anywhere in the body, but most people make it circte starting from their hearts as the starting point, they sort of force their mana to take the same pathways as their blood, it makes the whole process much easier, but you could make it start from wherever, don¡¯t tie yourself down with just one way of doing things, resting on the first manner you learned is a mark of sloth and mediocrity" she removed her hand and the feeling stopped instantly.


    "Now try for yourself"

 Chapter 63: Double

    "Try saying something" Faraday stepped back, tapping his metallic fingertips against each other, he wouldn¡¯t have expected such early sess in any other case, but he firmly believed that something so mundane shouldn¡¯t pose a problem for Loimos and his seemingly perfect death force.


    For a few moments, only small metal clinks could be heard throughout the oversized throne room.


    Until words spoken in an unknownnguage rippled over them, Faraday was pleased with the results, Loimos had learnt the death tongue already, which was more than enough to properlymunicate.


    What took him aback however, was his voice, it was only natural for an undead to carry no tone or emotions in their voices, but never had he expected himself to be dumbfounded by such an utterck of everything. Find more adventures on mvl


    ¡¯That even got me to pause for a moment, this will get the living thinking back on the choices that led them to this¡¯ in any case, it was now time to get down to business.


    "The pale tongue was unlocked too" in the same truly dead tone, Loimos informed Faraday that they were doubly sessful.


    After settling down, Faraday truly began exining things, though knowing that Loimos could speak, but didn¡¯t was even more off putting than simply having him be mute, he ignored this as he quickly exined a few basic things, Faraday and the living seemed to share the same ideas of what the categories to ssify energy talent were.


    "Do not bother with those however, death force maniption will be as natural as killing to you, that is for certain" Faraday instead began exining about other stuff in quick session, teaching from undead to undead was rather simpler than living teaching to living.


    Undeads couldn¡¯t really forget things, Loimos being pretty much the ideal version of one meant that Faraday could just ramble on without stopping and without caring, Loimos would just remember everything as clearly forever.


    "There are sixteen stats that I know of, however, we undeads only have fourteen, vitality and endurance have no meaning to us, endurance is literally meaningless in its effect, as for the effects of vitality, which is to increase HP and HP regeneration, as well as regr health, well, for us it is added to the effect of constitution, that¡¯s another advantage we have"


    "Let¡¯s talk about HP while we¡¯re at it, that is pretty much the most meaningless thing, no matter how much they have, if you stab a living them in the head, they die, some of us undeads can also be instantly defeated by having our head crushed, though, not necessarily, some of us need to be brought to zero HP to be defeated but that is unusual, generally, we can get to zero without any problem and still operate the same, we have to be destroyed entirely and have our death force eradicated to be dealt with" Faraday went on and on about how HP was a useless value.


    He kept at it for an indeterminate amount of time, all the while with Loimos not saying a word.


    "Now, for the more important stuff, I am a mage, my element is this chromatic metal, it looks shiny, but is also an excellent conductor, lightning and electric mages stand no chance against me, I am not kidding in the least, I have told that I was a god yer, yes?"


    "Well, back when our glorious king and the lords were all active, we naturally waged war on all that lived, I don¡¯t really know how but some priests or clerics or whatever really didn¡¯t want to die, they must have been praying very diligently because their god came down in person" he waved his arms around as he recounted the tale.


    "Normally, I should have been vaporised, but I wasn¡¯t a fool, I had been solely targeting the lightning affiliated groups for efficiency, so it was a lightning god that came down, he probably could have still bludgeoned be to paste with his fists but he took too long just standing there majestically, so I casted a spell, my cage, my Faraday cage if you will"


    "Which drained him of all his lightning, which being associated with his divinity, drained it as well, he turned into dry piece of whatever and died, let me tell you, everyone was freaking out, I was hit with a tidal wave of XP and the system started speaking to me and all, you yed this, you earned that title, ¡­" he pped his hands.


    "So anyways, for this affront, the other gods locked me into a seal and put me there, it got quite a fair bit weaker since then, allowing him to turn the seal into a dungeon"


    He stopped as if to gather his thoughts.


    "Ah yes, what I meant to say is that elemental interaction is very important, for you, you mostly only have to worry for life users, be it the life element or life force, it really is the only element that can rival you without necessitating an overwhelming amount of extra firepower, not that you can just block everything thrown your way anyways" he pointed in the distance.


    A pir of metal rose from the ground, standing about twenty meters away from the both of them.


    Faraday could tell that Loimos could already feel his death force clearly, so he skipped the first part and asked him to shoot something straight away, the metal mage took a few steps back just in case.


    Loimos had heard him say a lot of things, he had already exined what was necessary to use any sort of energy, feel it inside of oneself, make it move a bit and then visualise the desired effect.


    Loimos only aimed to fire pure death force, without shaping or transmuting it into anything else, he raised one arm and pointed his index finger at the pir.


    Nothing happened for the next few minutes.


    The death force was circting around quite well, without any hindrance and was going where Loimos wanted it to, but shooting it out of his body wasn¡¯t as simple as willing it, one needed to try for quite a while to aplish it.


    Thankfully, he could try indefinitely, without suffering from any sort of exhaustion.


    Faraday stared up, focused on something only he could see, he had noticed strange activities up in the dungeon for a little while now, a certain group of young livingsing in and out.


    He brought his attention back to Loimos as death force exited from his finger, only to dissipate chaotically in the air.


    "Seems like your death force is too good, it is trying to go ahead and reach for something alive rather than be shot in a straight line" that wasn¡¯t too unusual.


    "Let us see for body reinforcement and conversion next"

 Chapter 64: Quideos Audit

    More than one month had now passed since David¡¯s death, the death hunters were slowly thinning out as each and every one of them failed to find any other signs of undeath in the area, only the underground and the escaped undead had been present.


    Word that the skeleton had escaped into the Elephant Cave Systems soon spread out, the enraged people were appalled that it had been allowed to flee, they feared that it woulde back again, resume its senseless massacre.


    Together, they put up a sizable bounty on the ¡¯sad faced man¡¯, nevermind that no one could clearly identify this undead, and nevermind that no one knew where to look.


    Still, deeming it best, Harold, mayor of Throdqdmond added some of his own money to the reward for the undead¡¯s head, and had the few people that had been in close contact with the undead give their testimony and rough description.


    Quickly enough, the target became just a little bit clearer, a skeleton that could manipte rot and blighted blood, remains of it indicated that it possessed a rather impressive dentition.


    The hunt was on, the reward was already worth some trouble, and it didn¡¯t seem like it would stop growing any time soon, the fear and hysteria wasn¡¯t going to back down as the shadow of Loimos loomed over the people, even as he didn¡¯t n toe back to there.


    Some local adventurers tried taking the bounty on, but only a minority, most simply went back to their routines, the guards remained vignt however, some of them had fallen in the ughter, all of a sudden, the job of guard was no longer so attractive.


    Tension remained, but everything soon stabilised and a semnce of calm nestled.


    ________________


    Things were much different far from all the chaos and death, in here, the ceilings were audaciously high, the walls were ornate with various paintings and scriptures, hallways bustling with activity as men and women dressed formally moved around swiftly, but without rushing, carrying cloches filled with steaming food, brooms or just messages.


    There was even a juggler waiting outside tall double doors, standing at the front of a line of people of all shapes, sizes and dressed drastically different from one another, some gaudily, others inplete contrast to the magnificent and clean interiors, while some actually seemed like they belonged.


    However, they all had to wait in line, politely waiting behind the ones that had arrived before them, any sort of harsh attitude could be met with severe punishment, although the morevish in the line were obviously displeased with having to wait behind random, filthy peasants and awful performers, especially considering who they were waiting to meet with.


    Not that whoever was behind those doors was lesser than any of them, they just couldn¡¯t bear having to give in to the entricities.


    ¡¯Even the king of Starkefolten didn¡¯t do this sort of thing¡¯ one thought as he was getting seriously tired of having to smell the peasant standing right in front of him.


    He kept it in, he couldn¡¯t afford to offend the king of Tamaris, even if he was a mere roitelet, nothing more than a bonafide merchant wearing a crown and ying rulers.


    Tamaris may be small and rather pathetic whenpared to the others, but it was situated strategically, surrounded by mountains, gigantickes and other natural hazards, it couldn¡¯t be invaded easily, and also, whilst their military wasn¡¯t developed, their warriors were good enough to be hired as mercenaries.


    Despite all of this, no one could really take this ce seriously, the other nations were simply that much more mighty andrge.


    The sound of someone storming through the serene atmosphere of the pce rang out from deep within the halls, everyone turned to look at who was arriving, the guards, who had been out of sight until now emerged from their spots between pirs, their copper-coloured armours, their helms leaving not much ground for a weak spot, all of them carrying halberds.


    This casually reminded everyone that one transgression too big and their skull would be forced to divide.


    Emerging within everyone¡¯s sight was a man dressed in clerical robes, looking frankly dishevelled and manic, a young servant was moving alongside him, frantically trying to tell him something, probably warning him not to cause a fuss or to rush through the halls like this.


    Everyone expected this man to be taken away, or perhaps, even cleaved right here and there, but instead, the guards took one look at him and backed off, returning to their posts without any grumble or hesitation.


    "Sir! Please, his majesty is busy with auditions today-" the servant¡¯s plea fell on deaf ears, the man was actually rather handsome, with his unusual white hair, he would have been a head turner if he did not look insane and in dire need of sleep.


    Without even bothering to respond, he pushed the double doors open, with rtive ease, and walked up into the throne room, passing by the person that been in audition as they were making their way back.


    The servant bowed forward, nearly out of breath, he still spoke up:


    "Prophet Quideos Audit wishes for an audience with his majesty, Agilulf Wanneck, king of Tamaris!"


    "Quideos, how many times have you uwfully stepped into my castle by now?" the king didn¡¯t put up any pretences as some guards quickly shut the doors to the throne room.


    "This is the fifteenth time! Listen my lord, there is no time, I have had the most worrying visionstely!" Quideos much in the manner his appearance would make one expect, swinging his arms around madly and contorting his body.


    "Everyone else has justughed in my face, they refuse to believe the truth!" he suddenly spoke in a low tone, squinting his eyes.


    The king sighed and shook his head, Quideos Audit was a great prophet and seer, but he hadpletely gone off the rails in recent years, there was little doubt that his visions still carried weight, however, his mad rants and other hallucinations have made him much less trustworthy than he used to be.


    "What is the matter? What have you foreseen?" he was still very much willing to hear him out though.


    Quideos took in a deep breath, reeling his body and head back exaggeratedly before straightening his back and beginning to speak seriously.


    ¡¯Terrific¡¯ the servant was thoroughly freaked out, this guy didn¡¯t look like a bumbling madman right now, he appeared truly insane.


    "Trees! Two trees! Heroes from times immemorial, two of which escaped from the clutches of death to fight once more! The dead rising! Four riders, gravelords, an old crown and a betrayal! Watching from high above- Aaaah!" he tightened his fist hard enough to make himself bleed.


    "I saw you die as well my lord! Your heart ripped out of your chest-"


    "Enough! Take a breathing Quideos, you have my interest"

 Chapter 65: Dismissed

    "Calm down Quideos, your predictions have never been so messy" the king rose one hand, this action doing little to appease the raving prophet, currently iling his bloodied hands and staining the floor of the throne room.


    "Sir, it is simply because that is a prediction that is nigh too much even for me to bear, and unlike others, it keepsing back! Every night, every time I close my eyes, no matter for how long, it all shes inside of my mind without end!


    It is all that I can see, I am certain this fate is one that is nearly unshakable, if not actions are taken as soon as possible, it will alle true in the exact manner that I see!" Quideos Audit began walking in circles as he exined this.


    "Your majesty! Have you heard of a young team of adventurers that go by the name of ¡¯Ladies Of All Around¡¯?" he suddenly spun on his heels, as though he had just remembered something important.


    "Never heard of such a poorly named team" the king reached for a scepter and lightly tapped it on the ground prompting two armoured men to suddenly appear from pathways hidden from sight.


    Quideos didn¡¯t react, but the servant still standing at attention near the entrance felt like the air had gotten heavier, he was seriously regretting going after the madman.


    "You two have better knowledge of that sort of thing, ever heard of them?" the roitelet questioned the two men, the servant turned to look at them, the king waspletely unbothered unlike him, the prophet probably wouldn¡¯t care even if a dragon suddenly crashed into the room anyways.


    Agilulf Wanneck stroked his white beard, his fingers adorned with countless rings forged out of various precious metals, he was dressed mostly in bright red, the most eye-catching being the cloak, truly a piece of clothing only a king could wear.


    The vast amount ofyers gave him arger presence, the servant could only admire this old king, especially more so when seeing his two closest guards, Shieldmaster Bough and Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e.


    The first was a real giant by human standards, looking about two and half meter tall, he carried a shield that was even more enormous than he was, and that was it, it was said that even the breath of a wind wyvern couldn¡¯t make him move at all.


    Those who had never seen him and only heard of the shield-carrying man couldn¡¯t imagine just how awfully minuscule anyone else looked beside him.


    The second wasn¡¯t small by any means, but much leaner-looking, carrying a halberd, all of the guards in this pce yearned to achieve even half of his skill, tending to literally remain his Bough¡¯s shadow, the servant knew little about Pierre-Orn¨¦e.


    Both were garbed in the same copper-coloured armour as the guards outside, the halbardier was pretty much wearing the exact same suit same for some minor differences, Bough on the other hand, famed for his defences and unshakable nature, had been equipped with much more advanced armour, no weak points could be exploited, apart maybe from the slits of his helm, still, it was doubtful whether that would work.


    The young man had only ever seen them from a distance, he had only ended up doing the presentations to the king because he had followed Quideos, he wasn¡¯t normally supposed to end up here.


    He awaited the two greatest warriors of the court to start speaking, what sort of person were they? He couldn¡¯t conceal his curiosity.


    An uncharacteristic, creepy chuckle came out of Bough as he nodded his head.


    "They have been working themselves out, their leader has been given a key allowing to challenge the chromatic dungeon¡¯s boss, something of that sort if I remember correctly" he leaned up against his shield as he mimed the act of rubbing his chin with his helm on.


    "That is a bit off, ¡¯boss¡¯ could be a bastardisation, we have no clue what that key actually does, I have gotten multiple spies on that group actually, it is the team led by an unwanted" Pierre-Orn¨¦e corrected, his voice raspy and unpleasant to the ears.


    "Oh, it¡¯s that one? I know what you are speaking of Quideos, yes, yes, two human girls, an elf, a dark elf and a red ogress, is that right?" the king leaned forward with a slight smile, he knew it well, he kept himself informed on unwanted presences in his country, and since that girl was the only one at the moment, it was well within his memory, although that team name was new information.


    He repositioned his crown and gestured for Quideos to continue with what he was saying.


    "My vision revealed to me that a king from long ago would soon awaken, this awakening is what would truly kickstart all of the other events leading to our end, whatys deep within this dungeon is in rtion with this, you need to make sure they seed in their endeavour" the prophet was sounding a whole lot moreposed right now, he actually sounded calm and reasonable.


    "Can we not simply stop them from using that key? Or take that key and send our own elite troops to deal with whatever is inside?" the roitelet asked despite knowing that it most likely wasn¡¯t possible.


    Quideos Audit was rather unhinged, but he was definitely being awfully serious at the moment, he looked just like before he started spiralling into madness.


    It was well known that his visions of the future were actually very clear, he simply wasn¡¯t allowed to be clear whenmunicating them, being forced to leave out details or be cryptic, only he was allowed to know the full truth of his revtions.


    The fact that he was actually allowed to speak of someone¡¯s death, and even precise how it would happen, meant that the vision was so terrifyingly bad that even that wasn¡¯t considered as a big piece of information.


    "No, doing so won¡¯t work, the only way is for them to seed on their own, if they cannot, then¡­ We better prepare for pandemonium!"


    "Well then, perhaps it is time to pull out our summoning rituals out of the dust"


    "Your majesty, the unwanteds summoned are rubbish nine times out of then" Pierre-Orn¨¦e reminded.


    "They can¡¯t handle any crushing" agreed Bough.


    "Manpower is manpower, let us prepare as though we were going to go to war! I will trust you Quideos, I will trust that you haven¡¯t lost all that once made you the man you once were"


    "Dismissed!"

 Chapter 66: Sour

    Wood splintered, falling to pieces, the pir broke down, taking what it was supporting with it in its fall, dust was risen, and only silence followed to destruction.


    "Alright, your aim is¡­ Fine actually, you just have no control over your own spell and it flickers around like a drunk fly in a hurricane" Helena waved her hand, blowing away the debris, revealing Milo¡¯s poor track record.


    A single target was ced in the space in front of them, it was intact, unlike the wall behind it, which had more holes in it than cheese.


    Milo¡¯s inner maniption was much too rough to form a stable spell just yet, he couldn¡¯t really correct the trajectory with outer maniption since he wasn¡¯t gifted enough in that department to hope to do anything with it at the moment.


    Whilst Milo had appeared to have average talent in most categories, he had shown tremendous progress in certain aspects, enough to convince Helena that his talent was actually pretty great.


    Still, the most important categories were the ones rting to maniption, and he was definitely not great in those, he could form a simple mana bullet and shoot it out, but as demonstrated, it wasn¡¯t doing him much good.


    In fact, the more he was practising with mana, the worse it was getting due to making tremendous progress in other categories.


    Usage, output, speed, resistance and range had grown by leaps and bounds.


    The raw, base power of his mana was impressive, the speed was so great already that it made Helena believe that his golden attribute was actually just fancy, golden lightning with how proficient he seemed in that category.


    Combined with the resistance of his mana to the outside elements and interference as well as his incredible range, he was well set to go on the path of a long-range mage, specialising in precise spells.


    They had also tested his usage a bit, and he could overcharge his spells even further, they hadn¡¯t attempted this since for obvious reasons.


    Milo actually needed to learn how to tone down those aspects of his mana to hope to get anywhere, with his current maniption, he would never control any spells.


    "Listen, don¡¯t get discouraged so easily, you have a bright future, don¡¯t botherpressing mana, just form a mana bullet with the least amount you can manage"


    Helena raised her hands to get his attention.


    "Magic and mana control is heavily tied to your imagination, will and control, strong emotions will show in your spells, and that¡¯s bad, it almost always result in awful control and half-assed spells, steady your breathing and don¡¯t wallow around, you have to will it over and over again until it does it, there is no secret, you to repeat it the same action" she had exined this a few times already, but much like what she was exining, it was best to teach the same thing multiple times to be sure it was understood.


    "You can do it" she stepped back and winked at him.


    ¡¯Ah shit¡¯ Milo was feeling quite a fair bit nervous, he did understand well what she was saying, and he had been trying to apply her teachings everytime, but it always spiralled out of control the moment he decided to manifest the spell.


    It would always seem like everything was under control whilst he manipted his inner mana, but that was because it was still inside of him, the instant the spell went off to do its thing, chaos would ensue.


    He was rather pleased with the sheer power, that thing would blow the regr schmuck on the street to pieces, which was also a problem, Milo didn¡¯t want to turn a random passerby into red goo.


    He put his all into his next attempt, and the next, and then the one after that, again and again until he wasying t on the ground with drained reserves.


    "I don¡¯t feel much progress Helena" he said, lookingpletely spent, as it turns out, training magic was also pretty tiring physically, since he was always trying to stand perfectly still and holding his hand up.


    "You are progressing Mimi, it¡¯s just that your mana¡¯s power and speed do so at a better rate than your maniption" she extended her hand to him, hoisting him up without much difficulty.


    He didn¡¯t quite know how to feel about the cute nickname, it seemed like a good sign but he didn¡¯t want anyone to hear her call him that.


    "I didn¡¯t want you to bother with all of this, but I guess there is no use, most beginner mages actually use incantations and hand signs at first to help with their maniption, it¡¯s not the same sort of incantations and movements used by great mages however, they have no other purpose than to help with learning" she shook her head.


    Helena had learned this way, however, this was quite problematic in its own rights, if you were taught to use those things for everything, then it may be difficult to stop doing so, using incantations and signs without greater purpose was idiotic, and frankly dangerous.


    It was preferable to not bother with this if possible, but Milo seemed to be a rare case where they would actually be needed for him to progress.


    "In any case, let¡¯s do this tomorrow" the two of them made their way back to their lodging in the city.


    On the way there, it was clear that the majority of the death hunters had cleared off, reced instead by mercenaries and adventurers interested in the bounty on the undead, they hung around and talked big games, iming that they were going to dive into the deep caverns and such.


    Most of them only took about ten steps into any given entrance before promptly turning around, either encountering too tight of passages for them to befortable squeezing in, some of them straight up never came back, which was to be expected, this ce wasn¡¯t leftrgely unexplored for no reason.


    There were no chances that any of them would actually manage it, even when cornered, the undead had managed to escape, a few ill-prepared fools wouldn¡¯t do much better when they were in unfamiliar and unfriendly territory.


    ¡¯...¡¯ Milo suddenly felt sour.

 Chapter 67: Slotriig

    "Life and death force maniption is rare, unlike the living, our death force grows as we kill and reap life, I only know of one for each, you being one of them" Faraday mused, Loimos¡¯s attempts at projectiles weren¡¯t going very well, his death force was truly not willing to stay packed together, it splits apart and just went into every direction.


    Faraday didn¡¯t doubt that those slithers of death would be able to find and target anything living, but it was doubtful they would make a difference between a de of grass and a person.


    It was all rooted within Loimos¡¯s dead mind, on the spectrum of life, he made no difference, all living were to be equally eradicated, of course, he himself could reasonably pick and choose, ignore vegetation and such, his death force didn¡¯t bother with such things however.


    It became apparent that the key to managing a long-distance usage of it was simply for him to kill more and upgrade his death force further, everything would go up everytime he did so.


    Simply training would be no good, as an undead, he couldn¡¯t make a mistake in something so repetitive, manipting energy to achieve a result was rather cut and dry, if he couldn¡¯t manage it now, it meant that it wasn¡¯t possible.


    "Show me what else you can do" spoke the metallic skeleton.


    It seemed clear that Loimos had ess to more than just an invaluable death force, actually, Faraday was rather interested in what sort of skeleton Loimos exactly was, he couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint what species the skeleton he was animating used to belong to.


    The build was very much human or human-adjacent, but the lined-up, pointy fangs meant for nothing but ripping and tearing were rather dubious, it didn¡¯t seem like those teeth could have been used to chew or anything.


    In fact, they were rather long and unwieldy looking, it was perfect for an undead that had no use for such things but every corpse was once alive.


    "Loimos, does your system mention the exact sort of skeleton you are?" Faraday had been spending much of his time teaching and analysing Loimos¡¯s death force, he had yet to question him on his system.


    "Putridum Ossa" he responded in death tongue, raising his arm and manifesting rot from his bony palm, keeping his posture as he slowly converted it into bone, made it ooze blood and then turned the whole thing into miasma.


    "How well can you control it when it isn¡¯t directly touching you?"


    "The miasma and rot are able to be moulded to a lesser degree, the blood and bone are out of my control entirely" he demonstrated as he spoke.


    "I see, then let us focus on this and on using death force to reinforce the body, I foresee much more potential within this ability of yours, there are no better ways to learn than to be put into action, Slotriig!" he called a name and what appeared to be nothing more than a wall slid open, a huge figure stepped into the room.


    About two and half meter tall, garbed in outrageously heavy, chrome armour and carrying a sword that could be considered oversized even for this size, it wasn¡¯t wide, in fact, it was rather thin considering the length.


    "Here is Slotriig, my best soldier and royal guard of his majesty, and here is Loimos, you two shall spar, avoid the head" Faraday made his way to his throne.


    Slotriig put his sword down, deeming that it was overkill for now.


    "Pleased to meet you" he said, using the pale tongue to converse.


    Loimos didn¡¯t reply and instead manifested arge amount of rot within his ribcage as he ran toward Slotriig in an arc.


    He was trying something for the purpose of learning as Faraday had put it, but the oue was fairly obvious from the start, Loimos got kicked up into the air, crashing against a wall and then falling down with a ssh as he tried to use blood-filled rot to soften his fall, he was a bit off and ended up with not a single of his ribs intact.


    Using rot to nullify the fall wasn¡¯t sessful but he had still been able to bend his limbs and body back to force all of the damage to concentrate on his ribs, which were a part that he could around the same even without.


    Faraday was perfectly right, by fighting and having to deal with situations on the fly, Loimos¡¯s control and repertoire was deemed to improve much faster than otherwise, in fact, primeval rot was both an ability intrinsic to him, but it was also simultaneously recognised by the system, despite not actually originating from it.


    As such, as he grew his own understanding and the ability grew, the system was also feeding his mind with snippets of information,plementing his own.


    Slotriig would certainly force him to discover how to use his primeval rot to defend and evade, even though he wasn¡¯t really trying, he was significantly stronger than Loimos was.


    He was a skeleton of the same sort as Faraday, thus armed with a strong and resilient body to begin with, his overwhelming base might was all he needed to throw Loimos around for now.


    Also, it seemed as though the armour was one at all, it had felt like the thing wasn¡¯t hollow or softer anywhere, the metal skeleton was encased in even more metal, all of it seemingly integral to his form.


    The fact that he was considered powerful enough to serve as guard to the undead king could only mean that he was capable of rivalling some of the strongest of the living.


    "Slotriig wins the first round" pointing his finger at Loimos, Faraday did something that restored his mushed ribs.


    "By the way Loimos, he used to be known as Hero-yer Slotriig, expect even more than double that amount of force as you progress" he mentioned casually, it might not sound as impressive as ying a god, but bonafide heroes weren¡¯t supposed to get ughtered by a guard.


    Slotriig wasn¡¯t one of the undead lords, it was only testament to how powerful the undead force was under the reign of the king.

 Chapter 68: Progress

    "Precision, hold, dead calm" Milo chanted words, just normal words, and yet, the improvements were visible.


    His mana bullets weren¡¯t going nearly as haywire as before, for starters, the mana was being kept together much better, he was actually firing mana bullets rather than a chaotic mess, the aim still wasn¡¯t going great, the spell flickered and weaved on its own still.


    But after a few weeks of constant training, when the progress in his best categories started to gradually slow down, his control was able to start catching up, and he began to actually hit the target without it being a stroke of luck, as Helena had stated, his aim had been on point since the beginning.


    Ever since he began actually having control on his spells, his sess rate grew.


    "Alright, let¡¯s try and drop the chanting entirely now" Helena hadn¡¯t expected him to take so long, the increase in certain aspects of his mana had been muchrger and much more lengthy than it should have normally been.


    But as she thought about it, it actually made sense, it was simply that she was been taught all of this from the regr perspective, which is that the person being evaluated had been actively circting their mana and practising since a young age, in her case, she had always been doing so subconsciously, so the aspects of her mana were already set at their expected rates.


    Milo¡¯s mana had been left to stand still for his whole life, much like a muscle that wasn¡¯t exercised, its development was stunted, the instant he began getting it moving, it resumed its growth into what it always should have been.


    This made Helena wonder just how many impressively talented mages just never got to learn how good they were due to the same circumstances, Milo was way above average in multiple categories.


    Doing the same thing without actively chanting was a bit harder, but as instructed, he had paid attention to how his mana had been behaving, and always knowing that Helena would make him stop incantations, the shift wasn¡¯t difficult and he soon reached the appropriate amount of control over the mana bullet.


    He wasn¡¯t quite done with it however, his teacher wasn¡¯t going to let him persevere without truly mastering the most basic spell of all.


    But first, she had to congratte him.


    "Mimi, you are officially an apprentice mage now!" she eximed, spreading her arms open and catching him into an embrace.


    "Oh!" Milo didn¡¯t see thising, instinctively stiffening up as he felt the twin peaks he looked so fondly upon pressing up against his chest, his chin stuck against her shoulder and his face in her hair.


    ¡¯Damn, that smells good-¡¯ his surprise at the fragrance of a woman was short-lived as he was reminded that he was being tightly hugged by a real girl of the farm.


    "Hele-Helena?" this was a bearhug, this was an actual killing move right there.


    "Ah, my bad" she let go of him.


    "What the hell were you fed in your youth? No one should just have that sort of strength for a casual hug¡­"


    "I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about, I am a sweet girl mage" she waved him off with a smile.


    "We¡¯ll go over a few more basic spells and mana usage, then we¡¯ll move right on to transmutation, I am quite curious what that element of yours really is" she said as Milo stretched his previouslypressed shoulders.


    He nodded his head and was about to respond.


    "Huh?" they both made a small noise.


    The feeble wooden structure around the target finallypletely copsed, falling apart like a card castle.


    Helena quickly lifted everything off the ground with a spell, throwing everything away from sight.


    "Don¡¯t worry, only the target is necessary anyways" she quickly moved away, it was already the end of the day, it was time to go back and rest.


    ______________________


    The months slowly went by, many machinations progressed without halt.


    Milo and Helena simply kept at it until time to leave for the academy she spoke of came, time went by peacefully for them, both of them still remembered David¡¯s demise vividly, but they kept each other¡¯spany, together, the two of them were, and would be fine.


    Agilulf Wanneck was hard at preparations as well, he had decided to fully believe Quideos Audit¡¯s horrifying prediction, his well-honed instincts, with which he had grown so wealthy that he was able to crown himself king, told him that the raving prophet wasn¡¯t preaching of one of his delusions.


    He put his two closest men to work, and his mages were busy preparing a summoning ritual, a specific spell to summon an unwanted presence, one that wasrgely frowned upon, not because it was seen as hical or problematic, but simply because it had the tendency of costing much more than it was worth.


    Unwanteds were generally not any greater than anyone else, but had the advantage of always having something special about them, summoning one was like gambling in a sense, you either got a meatshield or a good meatshield, with how rich Tamaris was, he could afford to summon a ton of them.


    He also got busy getting in touch with the other surrounding kingdoms, whilst they had seemingly all dismissed Quideos previously, they had to hear the roitelet out, even if his status as a king wasn¡¯t seen in a great light, they had held bigmercials ties with him, he could force them to at least pretend to try and do something about the harrowing future.


    Deep below the earth, encased between thick metal walls and guarded by countless living armours, Loimos and Slotriig continued on sparring without any stop, the two undeads never stopping in all of those months.


    Faraday looked on, restoring any damage done to make sure no time was wasted doing nothing.


    The ancient metallic undead could witness firsthand just how versatile and powerful the primeval rot could truly be, it was still not much of what he envisioned, but it was nothing like when Loimos had first gotten there.


    The progress was great, so great that Slotriig picked his sword back up.

 Chapter 69: Oh

    A great portion of the chrome floor was currently covered in a thinyer of ck blood, exhibiting a particrly sticky properties, stretching and resisting to pulling force well enough, it wasn¡¯t good enough to hold Slotriig in ce just yet, his excessive raw strength could get him moving still, however, Loimos wasn¡¯t ying nning on exchanging blows with the metal giant.


    Flowing endlessly in cascade from his hollows sockets, the ck blood wasn¡¯t merely an environmental hazard, he could still manipte it.


    Slithering along the floor like revolting worms, the rotten liquid converged wholly around Slotriig¡¯s feet and legs, the weight of the blood increased and the amount increased its special properties,Slotriig was starting to feel his movements being truly impaired.


    So he reinforced his legs with mana, not the metal mana just yet, just regr for now, freeing himself from the hold of blood, during that time, Loimos didn¡¯t stay idle and grew a repulsive mass of rot around his body, melding into it and disappearing from sight as the rot expanded further, continuously oozing more ck blood to slow down the metal skeleton¡¯s approach.


    "This again?" Slotriig spoke to himself, his sword resting on his shoulder.


    He had had the sword at hand for a few rounds now, his strikes could easily carve right through whatever Loimos¡¯s could pull, at the moment, he had achieved impressive control over his rot, blood and miasma, although hecked much good usages of the miasma for now.


    Being death miasma, Slotriig couldn¡¯t be blinded by it and he still had some work to do before swiftly converting it into anything else, as for the bone, he had yet to try much things with it, making Slotriig question whether it was because it would be ineffective, or if Loimos was just keeping it up his sleeve.


    The armoured undead expected the rot to continue expanding into a multitude of directions, this trick was rather good, Loimos could travel through his rot much faster than he could move around otherwise, still, with regr a swing of his de, Slotriig could stir up the winds and blow everything away.


    He prepared to do just that, but unexpectedly, the rot converged into a single, bloated sphere, condensing further and stretching up in a few quick moments.


    Slotriig stood still, he could have done something to stop this, but with the current restrictions he was putting on himself and the fact that this was all meant for the purpose of progressing in control and power, he waited to see what in tarnation this was all about.


    The amount of subtle control needed for this was beyond what had been previously shown by Loimos, the armoured undead stood in a defensive position, noticing his footing changing somewhat, he realised that the blighted blood had switched properties, returning to a much more liquid state, quite slippery in fact.


    The mass of rot seemingly exploded, blood and gore was flung everywhere.


    "Oh?" Slotriig didn¡¯t miss the very oundish approach chosen by Loimos, propelling himself with a blood explosion and sliding alongside the ground, the speed was impressive, but both Slotriig and Faraday had their gaze also attracted to some of the flesh debris flying through the air at the moment.


    Augmented by death force, Loimos dropkicked Slotriig¡¯s left ankle with enough force to somewhat move him, thanks to the slippery floor, it wasn¡¯t very effective against the heavy undead, though, most people would rather dodge this than take it head on.


    "Pause" Faraday called out, raising one hand up into the air.


    The two stopped instantly mid-movements, whether or not Loimos would have ended up stuck to Slotriig¡¯s soles would be determined another time.


    Faraday walked up to some of the fallen bits that had been flung all around by the corpse explosion.


    "Now, this is something" the battle mage wasn¡¯t expecting this, it seemed like the intense condensation the rot had undergone for the purpose ofunching Loimos had resulted in the rot transforming unexpectedly.


    The skeleton in robes was holding a heart, it didn¡¯t even appear to be decaying, of course, it was packed with death and emanating the appropriate stench, but in appearance, it looked like a recently, surgically removed heart.


    Imitating a body part wasn¡¯t what seized his attention however, but a small piece of fabric stuck amidst blood and pungent flesh.


    Just like the heart, signs that it was in realityposed of rot couldn¡¯t be hidden, yet, the appearance, the texture, it was incredibly convincing.


    "Continue" having confirmed it, Faraday returned to his seat, removing everything from the room for the two to resume, he didn¡¯t feel the need to tell Loimos about, he had proven to be well aware of what was happening with his rot, the fact that he hadn¡¯t even bothered to stop and question it was yet another proof that Loimos was somehow, wired like a mindless undead despite clearly not being one of such a piece.


    The two undeads went into position once more.


    _______________________


    Deep within a forest of tall trees, a forest of now and frozenkes, a forest of steep falls, mountains and deep caverns.


    "Sir Audit? Once again, this region is filled with werebeasts, and not the nice kind that turn into people, why insist so much on going deeper and deeper?" a young man, his face obstructed by the equipment he was wearing spoke while shivering through the freezing winds and heavy falling of snow.


    Large mounds of snow would sometimese crashing down trees, threatening to bury one of the dozen of men Quideos had somehow convinced toe with him here.


    They were all dressed to withstand the murderous cold, unlike Quideos, who was dressed the exact same as usual, in clerical robes.


    His white hair was thrown around by the violent gusts, he stepped ahead through the snow, leaving the others in the dust as he stepped near a cliff, overlooking an immenseke, frozen to its deepest parts.


    "My friends! The evil of the awakened one knows no bounds, his mere existence has begun infecting our world, not just the continent of Viridis, the whole world of Vivax is at risk of corruption! We must quell thergest of those buds ourselves, we must buy time for the heroes to rise again!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the distance and probably provoking some avnches on the way.


    "Inspired yet?" he asked whilst turning around, only to see that the snow had taken on a darker shade.


    "Oh, found it"

 Chapter 70: Delusion

    "My poor friends, I am terribly sorry to have brought you all here with me, and frankly, I lied about the whole point of this little exposition in this magnificent, murderous frozenndscape¡­"


    "No, don¡¯t say anything, I am not deserving of your pardon, I-"


    A gurgly, rupturing roar washed over Quideos, sting his long robes and hair back as suspiciously coloured, mud-like saliva struck him on his forehead, he had a perfect view down the oesophagus and of the scenery behind since it was full of hole and tears.


    "Oh please, can¡¯t you see that I am giving a grandiose speech to the strangers you turned into mush a second ago? Ah, if only I had bothered listening to their cries for help as I attempted to inspire them to ignite their heart and soul to protect what is right" he calmly shut the two-legged beast¡¯s maw.


    Quideos was currently standing dangerously close to one of the many werebeasts said to inhabit this frozen region, this one was already dead however.


    Most of its fur had either fallen or turned disgustingly warped, both of its ears had been seemingly ripped off, its tongue had already putrefied away, even its tail had gone entirely missing.


    To the point that the prophet could hardly tell what it had used to be, but not that it was of much importance.


    "The blight from outer tomb really has reached so far already, they won¡¯t be able to ignore my warnings when all of their graveyards be the spawning grounds of countless undeads!"


    He swung his arms around as he kept on speaking to a reanimated cadaver of a beast that never could have understood him even in life.


    It swung both of its jagged ws, coated with the blood and gory bits of the poor men that had chosen to follow Quideos, not leaving even a dent on the frail-looking man¡¯s clothes, not even budging him from his spot.


    "Oh! Now you¡¯ve done it, here I am, speaking my mind to you and you just try to spill my guts out into the open? In such weather? You have no manners, even for a mindless and soulless corpse only animated by your predatory desire to kill!" he pped its paws away as if it was a child trying to touch a recently baked cake.


    He pointed his index finger at the beast¡¯s forehead, a bright line of energy suddenly went right through the undead creature, eradicating any proof of its existence in an instant.


    "Bad!" Quideos turned on his heels, walking right back toward the cliff and promptly jumping off of it head first.


    And here it was, it was a shame that they had all been converted to ground meat just moments ago, otherwise they could have all had a great moment of discussion and bonding whilst climbing down.


    Not interested in doing this by himself, the prophet took the quicker way down,nding softly on the ground despite the height, swinging his arm at an innocuous pile of snow, he blew it away, revealing a carved door into the cliff side.


    Exactly where his vision had told him it would be, right before him shouldy the mausoleum to a hero of the past, though, Quideos hadn¡¯t been made privy to the who it was that was left to rest in each of the tombs he had seen in his mind.


    So naturally, he busted his way in to find out.


    "Ah sweet" he eximed in a low tone, rubbing his chin with a smile as he came across carved out writings on the wall.


    He hummed a small song as he read through the ancient scriptures, Quideos was high in spirit since thenguage it was written in was one that preceded the lifting of thenguage barriers on this continent.


    Back when the gods were still involved in earthly matters.


    His face soon dropped as the name of the hero turned out to be one he didn¡¯t know, the prophet was researching for three distinct heroes, the title of hero, whether granted by the system, the people or both didn¡¯t mean that they would be very useful.


    There were lots of heroes, but few left a mark, and only three truly seemed deserving of high praise.


    He had seen revtions concerning those three multiple times, if any heroes could fight back the impending dark gue, it would be them.


    Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter.


    Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light


    And of course, the one whose name was left forgotten by history, the one whose existence seemed to only be known by Quideos Audit at the moment:


    Sonnentr?ger.


    Whoever the man buried here was, he was neither of them, still, perhaps he could still be useful.


    The prophet moved deeper into the tomb, manifesting a bright orb to illuminate his way as he soon found himself before the stone coffin covered in engravings depicting some sort of werebeast.


    "A bear?" he tilted his head, not certain as the engravings were old and of rtively bad quality to begin with.


    In any case, he straightened his backpletely and put on his serious expression, bringing his palms together, the line formed in between them being horizontal.


    "Under the star of the first, below the gaze of duty, underneath the foot of retribution"


    He began softly reciting some sort of prayer.


    "I ask for you to fulfil your duty, I demand you see your destiny through"


    "Come and prove your worth" he separated his palms and pointed up with both his index and middle finger.


    Nothing happened.


    "Now that¡¯s curious" he unceremoniously kicked the lid of the coffin, finding it utterly devoid of its upant.


    Nearly as soon as he did so, the prophet ducked down, avoiding a swift shadow.


    "To think the blight even managed to reach so far already, you must have really been a fraud of a hero, whatever your name was!" Quideos talked down to the dry husk of the hero, whilstcking an ego, this undead clearly had a mind and soul unlike the werebeast from before, it had potential to quickly grow into a problem.


    The forgotten hero was still wearing his armour, and from the way his hands shifted from looking like bear ws to human hands, he also still had ess to his abilities.


    "No matter, you¡¯re just a third-rate hero anyways, probably just a glorified adventurer or hunter, I¡¯ll show you your terrible truth"

 Chapter 71: Truth

    The gloryless hero backed off and stopped for a second, his dried, crumbling face twisted into a hardly recognisable expression, a powerful roar blowing right through the room.


    The sides of his face cracked, dust forcing its way out as he transformed his dead body into a legitimate werebear, his bestial form appeared just as fragile as his human cadaver at least in appearance, he kicked off the ground of the small tomb with uracy, dragging Quideos outside in one move.


    Stirring up the snow, flocks of birds flew up, left from right.


    "So you still got a bit of personality up in there then? Are you really certain you don¡¯t want to put your undeserved title to use for the sake of good and goodness?" it was hard to read expressions on the face of a dead bear, but the hero was definitely taken aback at the moment.


    The prophet had blocked both of his paws made for naught but ughter with his bare hands, and he was still talking!


    Somehow roaring with petrified vocal cords, the hero of yore took hold of Quideos¡¯s wrists, flunging him into a tree further away.


    "Just remnants huh? Even from this I can say that your personality wascking!" the yapping prophet hadnded safely and softly, currently holding onto one of the branches with one arm, swinging the other around as he insulted the corpse.


    Another roar came his way, this one much stronger as it ripped three trunks apart as it made its way toward him, he took the attack without much problem, somewhat all around his body shining brightly for an instant.


    The hero¡¯s reactions were naught but reflexes still etched into his body, this suggested a rather strong sense of self, yet, both his soul and mind had failed to return as they should have, instead forming new ones for his undead form to rise.


    He plopped down into the snow, dusting his shoulder off of some snow as he repeated the same hand gesture from before, pointing both his index and middle finger up, this time however, his other hand wrapped around the wrist of the signing hand.


    "Alright,e over here" as though his words were gospel, the old hero slid along the ground, his foreheading into contact with the prophet¡¯s palm as he stopped his handsigning and grabbed him.


    The hero saw nothing for a split second, before being met with countless visions, the future, the past, the present, what never was, what could have been, what couldn¡¯t.


    An ideal life, an ideal end, an abject beginning, an abject conclusion. Experience exclusive tales on NovelBin.C?m


    He saw lies, he saw the truth, and then the actual truth.


    He was seeing it all with all of his being, his mind, his soul, his spirit, his body, every energy in his body, everything that constituted his person was made to bear witness to all of it, all at once, without stopping.


    Even his undeath wasn¡¯t sufficient to protect him, everything that was him crumbled away a mere second after being touched by Quideos Audit.


    "On to the next one then"


    ____________________


    Another month went by, the ambiance surrounding the dungeon of metal chrome was rising, both of the king¡¯s highest guards had done their best to try and make everything right as per the prophet¡¯s, or rather, destiny¡¯s design.


    Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough felt like it was a waste of time, the adventurer team with the poor naming convention, ¡¯Ladies Of All Around¡¯ wasn¡¯t shabby by any means, but considering how Audit had been speaking of whatid deeper in, they doubted in the chances of those five girls.


    By all means, it had sounded like something even the two of them wouldn¡¯t want to set foot in.


    They had been instructed to try and raise the levels of those girls, but it was easier said than done, they were strong for sure, but that didn¡¯t mean they were good teachers, in fact, anyone that had seen the halbardier training the royal guards could attest to the fact that his ways were spartan and more akin to cksmithing.


    Striking those poor guards until they took on the appropriate shape.


    He could do this because what was expected of a royal guard was set in stone, they practised mostly the halberd and such, a team of five adventurersprised of multiple species with wildly varying strengths and powers was another story entirely, he could only fall back on giving advice.


    As for Bough, there was no point inparing him to Pierre-Orn¨¦e, there were no royal guards carrying shields like he did for a reason, he couldn¡¯t be trusted with the safety and overlooking of anyone but Pierre-Orn¨¦e, so telling him to train people vastly weaker than him was just asking for disaster.


    With the more reasonable of the duo also present, he could direct Bough to assist him in making demonstrations, also, since he was an immovable mass, you could throw anything at him, and he at least was well aware of the strength of anything hitting him and his shield, so he could track progress in that regard.


    Today, the group was going to tackle the dungeon for real, they were going to step into the supposed deeper part, which existence was confirmed by Quideos Audit.


    "What do you think, Bough, are they going to do it?"


    "No chance, the prophet probably knew it as well, there is no way such a shabby group could take on anything that could be responsible in any manner of what he described" the shieldmaster shook his head, not believing in their chances for one second.


    "What a shame"


    "Let¡¯s keep watch for a while longer, Audit likes to say that destiny can be changed after all, we might luck out" Pierre-Orn¨¦e sat down, his halberd resting by his side.


    The upper portion of the dungeon wasn¡¯t very dangerous, only inhabited by living armours, all the same sort as Loimos had encountered in the caverns, albeit those weren¡¯t damaged, forming straight out of the walls at a steady rate, the metal would lose its chrome-like sheen when they were defeated but it was still great quality, especially for something that could be harvested endlessly, many weapons and armours were forged out of this throughout the country.


    Five girls, appearing rtively young in appearance, showed up in front a staggeringly tall wall, the end of the dungeon, no signs of a key hole or of any contraption anywhere that could indicate that it could be opened.


    A rather strange groupposition, one red ogress, one dark elf, one more regr elf and two humans, one of which being an unwanted presence.


    The one that wasn¡¯t of this world pulled out a small cube, a pattern brightened up on its surface, prompting it to rise off into the air by itself, merging right into the wall.


    The wall rose up, shaking the entirety of the dungeon down to its deepest portion.

 Chapter 72: The Second Portion

    The wall trembled, rising off of the ground, no dust or filth was stirred up, the ce was awfully clean of such things, the five women were greeted by an endless expanse of darkness and dead silence. Your journey continues on NovelBin.C?m


    "Shite! Run!" the dark elf, Irgot, was in possession of a pair of eyes adapted to peer through the dark, it was mere night vision, but since there was light behind them, she was clearly able to see the lines and lines of living armours and other armoured monsters lying in wait.


    As was customary, when someone yelled that it was time to run, everyone followed suit, except for the human dressed up in a blue, clerical robe, she rose one hand up, rising up a transparent, luminous wall of holy energy to block the path of the unleashed swarm.


    It was rather effective, whilst the living armours were just inconvenienced by it just by any other wall, the other monsters garbed in protective suits, which were undeads much like Slotriig, were forced to keep their distance and unable to damage it, the holy warded them off.


    There was no need to specify how disappointed Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough were when they saw the group of five running out of the dungeon as though they had seen a ghost.


    They had been expecting the way to open upon a secret chamber, which had been the case, they just hadn¡¯t thought about the fact that there could be enemies waiting for them, the way had been opened upon a muchrger portion of the dungeon, the parts previously avable barely amount to even ten percent of the whole thing.


    "Let me tell you, the export of metal is going to increase when the moths are inevitably attracted the new shiny stuff uncovered" the halbardier shook his head, he could already imagine himself staying in this horrifically empty and uneventful city.


    "Surely there are criminals and bandits to mur- I mean, apprehend with excessive, but nheless righteous force" Bough covered his mouth with his hand like a little youngdy would, there was no need to specify why everyone in a fifty meter radius felt like their spines were being slurped up.


    "I swear B-"


    Both of them cranked their necks up toward the entrance of the dungeon, both expecting something other than an adventurer toe crawling out for a brief instant.


    "Audit really was messing around, the best oue he mused over has no chance of happening" Pierre-Orn¨¦e could definitely sense something further into the guts of this dungeon, the simple fact that he could feel it meant death for anyone weaker than he and Bough.


    It didn¡¯t seem like an insurmountable challenge for him, but that was only based on that thing¡¯s presence, there was no telling what it really was.


    _____________


    "Oops, I think I leaked something" Faraday waved his hand, him, Slotriig and Loimos had distinctly felt the opening of the way, even from their position in the deepest portion.


    None of them had been sparring however, the owner of the dungeon deemed that it was no use for Loimos to continue like this, although he could still progress, Faraday had a different conception of time to Loimos, the skeleton of rot could easily spend any amount of time doing the same thing over and over, both Faraday and Slotriig, not so much.


    "It is great, I have no doubts that those pesky explorers will want to venture deeper now, go kill them Loimos, it will certainly boost the speed of your improvements" the robed skeleton shooed him away up to the entrance of the throne room.


    "You too Slotriig, even if you can maintain your death force, it won¡¯t hurt to replenish it the better way, by plucking some lives" he stopped, unable to step outside of this room.


    The seal imprisoning him may have weakened, it still fulfilled its primary function, trapping him evestingly.


    Loimos didn¡¯t bother to converse with him, but he already had an idea to get rid of said seal, and the arrival of living flesh was the necessary ingredient needed for it.


    "So, Loimos, we haven¡¯t spoken much despite all of our interactions, what did you use to do before, you know, being dead?" the giant-sized mass of steel attempted to make conversation.


    "Nothing" Loimos graced him with an answer, walking up to some of the wandering undeads, each encased in their suits of armours and parading around enormous weapons.


    It seemed like Faraday had a preference for his minions, not much variety, just a bunch of pure masses of defence and hard hitting weapons, no speed, no flexibility and no rangedbatants.


    This could be exploited, the adventurers would quickly be falling into routine, only being mildly attentive, thus susceptible to surprise attacks from a swifter undead, manifesting arge amount of rot, he began implementing his own touch to the vertigo-inducing hallways.


    "Brace yourself Loimos, the moment it spreads out that there are undeads in this dungeon, the death hunters will surelye flocking in, if they are still a thing, do you know if they are?" Slotriig wanted to give advice, but quickly realised that his words may be outdated, him and Faraday had been locked away for a while, definitely enough time for kingdoms and dynasties to end, be reced, multiple times over.


    "I do not know" Loimos had already sted himself into the caves before any death hunter had shown their faces before him.


    "What about the country we are in?"


    "Tamaris" that Loimos had heard during his prowls.


    The people of this kingdom were rather big on gossip, Loimos had been made aware of quite a lot of things without fishing for it, the name of the king and his closest aides, a few personalities and even rumours of conflicts.


    Putting aside the whole skeleton thing, he probably could hold a conversation with the first random guy that wandered in and appear just as informed as anyone else.


    To do anything like that though, he would first need a good disguise, and also not speak with his actual voice, it wasn¡¯t a thing just yet, but he had the exact voice one should expect from an undead, his words just oozed death and decay.


    So much so that even Slotriig felt it distinctively.

 Chapter 73: Let The Others Try First

    The movements of the entirely metallic beings throughout the simrly halls,pletely forged out of metal didn¡¯t go unnoticed, the instant the way had been opened to the deeper portion of the dungeon, everything moved out of their stasis and began moving, the scrapping, nking, the shing, the bludgeoning, everything bounced off the walls without stop, as though even sound was trapped down there.


    Anyone, anywhere in the dungeon could hear those at all times, having no idea whether the ce they had felt iting from was the original source or nothing more than an echo, the exploration of the depth wasn¡¯t necessary for the working of the cities economies, not in the least, but such things weren¡¯t on the minds of the daring people delving into the danger and darkness.


    They all aimed to hit it big, find something that would make them rich multiple generations over, everyone had heard of stories, stories of great treasures hidden away inside dungeons, some were fake, some weren¡¯t, one could in fact be rich by stepping in a dungeon and stumbling upon something.


    A secret way had been uncovered, nothing screamed of riches more than a hidden path, everyone that could fight swarming in, like flies to a pungent corpse, even those that couldn¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t step into the dungeon were attracted.


    A dense presence of dense skulls incensed merchants of all sizes and fame, they too could hit it big thanks to this opportunity, whatever that could be sold was getting sold, clothes, armours, weapons, potions, scrolls, anything that was even remotely close to the experience of dungeon crawling.


    But there was a ring problem, one that didn¡¯t discourage much, only heightening their expectations and hopes, the dungeon was simply enormous, a veritable maze of unknown proportions,rger than any that had explored others could have expected.


    Even if one were to know the exact way from entrance to end, it seemed clear that at least a week would be necessary to traverse it all, without counting the threat of monsters or ounting for the requirement of sleep and rest.


    Everyone believed it to be even longer, this harrowing fact served as fuel.


    ¡¯What lies at the bottom must be extraordinary¡¯ they must have all thought, seemingly convinced that a dungeon had to reward their efforts and not simply be one giant death trap.


    Time passed and passed, the group of five that had opened the gateway to all of this madness had entered multiple times since then, going back in and out, attempting to map the way to their destination without getting skewered.


    The monsters were certainly dreadful, but predictable, as well ascking in much stealth.


    Even despite theck of lighting, the sounds of their approach made it hard not to be expecting them, even with the constant echoing.


    In any case, as more and more teams went in, they strung upnterns and other light sources as they went, slowly uncovering the veil shrouding the interior.


    Within a few days of it being made clear what the monsters besides the living armours were, death hunters began to show up, making much better progress in the mapping and reconnaissance department than anyone else, a dungeon sprouting up undeads was much akin to a deration of war for them, they would pick this whole ce apart if necessary.


    However, the progress, which was certainly fast at the start, hit a roadblock when a staircase leading to another bit of the dungeon was discovered as the only way further down.


    From here on out however, things got much more difficult, and the group five were right there to witness it themselves, not anyone had yet to truly explore deeper ande back to speak of it, either killed, or unable to make their way back.


    With a quick prayer, Iritim, the group¡¯s priestess called forth a luminous orb, whilst being a priestess, she pretty much filled in as a mage equivalent as well, since no one in the group could use any sort of energy beyond mild body reinforcement.


    "This is disgusting" eximed one of them, right before the macerating smell of the whole thing hit them head on, not a single one of them was able to hold back their face from scrunching up reflexively.


    Iritim recited a prayer to shield them from toxic fumes, which this smell definitely was, even by just being on the edge of its reach, they could feel their skin itching, and their nasal hair to curl up like deceased spider legs.


    Wiping the tears that had formed in her eyes, Irgot, the dark elf, serving as one half of the pair of scouts alongside, Ariandnel, the elf.


    She inspected the strange substance forming some sort of indoor jungle of nightmares, it sizzled, bubbled and moved in generally disturbing manner.


    "Looks like something rotten¡­¡¯ remarked Ariandnel, reconsidering taking another step down. Continue reading stories on NovelBin.C?m


    "Well, there are already undeads in there, so not totally unexpected, right?" Tilke, the red ogress cracked her neck, not quite minding the prospect of digging through pure decay.


    "We don¡¯t have to step closer anyways, step back everyone!" finally, the star of the show, Marlene, the unwanted that had warranted this team to be under close surveince in the first ce, closing one eye, she flinged some sort of round object with a rope attached to it.


    The item bursted as it struck the ground, spreading a ming liquid all over the growth of rot all around, quickly spreading along the vile substance.


    The five ran up the stairs, not nning on staying in the dungeon as smoke filled up the whole ce.


    The great stake of mes fell t as the rot quickly began to defend its integrity, oozing and bursting with ck blood, extinguishing the fire before it could deal any real damage.


    The burnt off pieces fell off and were promptly reced before the astonished eyes of the group.


    "Don¡¯t tell me this whole thing is a single monster" that was a rather spooky prospect, and seeing the way it had reacted to being attacked, even if it wasn¡¯t the case, they may as well treat it as such.


    "We still have the nes at least" rtivised Marlene, still opting to retreat and regroup for now, they would allow others, and hopefully the death hunters to try their own things before moving any deeper.

 Chapter 74: Pincer

    "This is rather tough, I feel like we¡¯re trying to punch above our weight ss" amidst a group of mask-wearing death hunters, all of them dressed in white, impersonal practical clothing, the one speaking was crouching down, bringing up the fact that their current attempt to clear out the rot wasn¡¯t very sessful.


    As had been demonstrated by Marlene and her group, the regr mes weren¡¯t going to cut it, the first idea was to bring in an experience pyromancer, they would keep control of their mes and continue injecting mana into the spell to prevent it from being put out, however, even that proved unfruitful, the amount of ck blood the rot could ooze was simply obscene.


    The strain of keeping the mes going was beyond expectations, and not efficient enough to burn through the blood and flesh anyways, bringing in more pyromancers and having them work together was then hatched, much simr results urred, even if they advanced on the rot, there was simply too much.


    The instant not enough pressure was put on it, it would regrow into its previous spots and ruin everything they had achieved, fire wasn¡¯t going to do the deal, the death hunters brought out something better. Explore more stories at NovelBin.C?m


    Death miasma was a typical and well known weapon of the undeads, as such, the hunters of the dead had devised an equivalent to it long ago, it was even believed that it had been first brought into existence by the first of them.


    The devices they had brought out with them this time were top of the art machineries, crystal or any substitute rarely came attached with life, as such, those contraptions had to get creative, putting together magic circles of the written sort, sigils, runes, enchanting and arrays, this device was capable of creation a fine, white mist of life force.


    While the life force was genuine, the whole process being artificial naturally resulted in an inherent weakness, if this life fog encountered genuine death miasma, it would lose the battle for certain and only serve as kindling to its growth, this was why they had brought out many of such creations and were using incantations and arts to reinforce them.


    The rot once again didn¡¯t back down in the least, counter attacking by emitting miasma of its own, though it appeared like they were steadily gaining some ground as the hours went by.


    This group of hunters hadn¡¯te unprepared, bringing down materials and such, they set up a small camp in the gigantic corridors of the dungeon, a safe zone to rest in and keep up the pressure.


    They demonstrated that their reputation as beingmitted to their craft wasn¡¯t earned for nothing, they brought down cattle, soil and crops as well, armed with life mist, it was easier than ever to maintain such operations.


    No one was going to budge until results were obtained.


    Still, as the one that had spoken stated, the difficulties they were facing to clear the way seemed to indicate that they weren¡¯t up against any random undead, this entire dungeon also seemed to be built for a specific purpose as well.


    Only undeads and animated suits of armour roamed the halls, everyone was under the impression that only a powerful undead or necromancer could be found in the depths of its guts, the death hunters currently present on site couldn¡¯t confidently im that they could deal with this.


    Which was why they were focusing on clearing the ce off of the rot, the metal skeletons would only keeping, it was all they could do.


    "We probably are, but then again, when are we not?


    Us lesser hunters stand above the lesser undeads for sure, but they are much more numerous than we are, we have hunters of great power, but once again, less than they have undeads of great power, I doubt we have any single person capable of standing in the same room as any of the gravelords" another one responded tly, not letting go of his sight upon the rot at the bottom of the stairs.


    "Don¡¯t bring down the mood, we aren¡¯t even nning on going down these stairs anytime soon, we¡¯re just smoking everything out" a third one interjected, his attention soon taken away as he moved up to one of the settlement¡¯s walls.


    "It¡¯s true, undead dislike fire, abhor the holy, but nothing will get quite rid of one for certain than life- What did you see over there?" the first one noticed him looking over in the distance, standing still after climbing up there.


    In response, the death hunter fell like a bag of bricks as he stumbled back.


    "Everyone! We have a problem" despite his first reaction, he called out with rtiveposure as he got back up to his feet.


    The hunters reflexively gathered near the two walls, the camp was ced right in front of the staircase leading down, in the center of a long hallway, the space to the right was aplete dead end, yet, this was the ce the hunter was pointing at as the source of his distress.


    There, standing amidst the strung up lights, his gigantic de resting on his shoulder, Slotriig¡¯s mere presence was intimidating, but the death hunters weren¡¯t worried, generators of life mist had also been put in ce near the edges.


    No undeads should willingly approach them, at least in theory.


    "That¡¯s a big one"


    "Big boy"


    "How the hell did he sneak up on us?"


    "Would anyone pay attention to the other way?"


    Thatst one brought attention to the only path leading out of there, and indeed, it turned out to be a pincer attack, while not nearly as physically impressive, Loimos was certainly much more disturbing of a sight to behold.


    With his line of unpleasant-looking teeth, hollow sockets overflowing with rotten blood and generally pustulent looks due to the growth of rot on his bones, he looked like some sort of personification of disease.


    "Should we shoot them down?" asked one.


    "No point in provoking the big guy, I doubt we can even leave a dent on him, the other one seems more easily destroyed, but let¡¯s not rile it up either, it¡¯s awfully off considering the rest of the monsters, and it¡¯s cooperating with the other, it is best if we assume they are both equally problematic for us to deal with, we are h-" the one that seemed to be in charge stopped as he noticed something down into the staircase.


    "Plug it!" he quickly switched his thought process as he clearly saw the rising of ck blood, they were going to get flooded!

 Chapter 75: Bluff And Misdirection

    Death Surrounds me, whispering to me, softly and harshly, the cold hands of my loved ones urge me to follow.


    I must not yield, I must not give in to its lies, I must fight back, I must discover the real truth.


    My efforts havee short until now, only feeding death¡¯s endless appetite.


    There it is, death is now before me, I look into its eyes and see something familiar, victorious over life, I can only stand down.


    But I refuse, I may have bent but I am not broken just yet, my hopes and dreams, my unlikely vision of a bright future now seems ever more distant.


    There he is, even with life at its lowest, he still stands, brighter than the sun, capable of defying it all.


    _____________________


    "Plug it! Defend and reinforce yourselves!" the death hunter yelled, circting his mana through his body, swinging his arms up, a powerful breeze blowing forward, lifting the generators of life mist up the air.


    All of them did the exact same motion, speaking the same set of words:


    "Life, defend from corruption!" uttering the words necessary for the art to function, each of their life forces moved to shield them.


    The man turned to look at each of the two undeads as he used the winds to lift himself up, none had moved a single centimeter, the other hunters used their magic and skills to block up the way down, trying to prevent the ink-ck blood from reaching them.


    It was no use however, the life mist couldn¡¯t slow it down, as right before everything surged, the rot emitted greater amounts of miasma, the artificially produced white mist prioritised defending itself, allowing the rotten blood to go past basically unhindered, it didn¡¯t rise up like normal liquid either, like a sentient mass, it crawled up the steps, climbing up onto the walls and ceiling.


    The quickly ced counters weren¡¯t good enough to stop it from slithering through cracks, once it got through, everything came crashing down, basically eating through anything that weren¡¯t the hunters themselves.


    Their equipment was already good enough to prevent them from being turn to mush by the acidic properties of the blood, adding the life force defences, they didn¡¯t even have to worry about being impaired, the blood was unable to close the gap on them, instead spreading everywhere else, taking down the walls, the cattle and crops, growing in mass exponentially every time it devoured something.


    "Wey down our life to defeat death!" yelling a motto, the leader couldn¡¯t help but not be very hopeful about their chances.


    The metal giant began moving, the swarming mass of dark allowing free passage for him.


    ¡¯This is being controlled¡­ Not by the giant-¡¯ his eyesnded on the other undead, the blood that reached this one didn¡¯t make way, it wasn¡¯t making any move, retaining the same pose, not acknowledging anything that was happening in particr.


    Like it was nothing but a prop.


    ¡¯This one controls the blood, probably the one responsible for the rot as well¡­ What is an undead of this sort doing in a metal-themed dungeon?¡¯


    "Everyone, work to hold the giant back, don¡¯t try to win, just survive" he gave hismand and began rushing forth toward Loimos, unsheathing a short dark de, it was imbued with mana that wasn¡¯t his own.


    "Life, grant me strength!" performing another art; his de was coated with his life force as well.


    Atst, the undead showed movement, suddenly bursting with rot,pletely encasing himself, the hunter swung his de thrice, shes of life flying through the air and slicing right the rot.


    He didn¡¯t hit any bones, the rot continued spreading, extending a multitude of tendrils in every direction, holding themselves up in the air by sheer defiance of physics it seemed.


    shing some from a distance, the living kept his distance from them, not certain what to expect from this particr skeleton.


    Two pirs of rots extended to each of his sides, one five meters to his right, the other ten meters of his left.


    He kept his attention on both of them equally in spite of the difference, the rot had already proven that it could extend itself swiftly, he expected to be rammed by rot or be assaulted by a surge of ck blood.


    Instead, one skeletal arm emerged from each of the two pirs.


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    ¡¯It dismantled itself?¡¯ the small amount of time it took him to react and understand how it was possible was minuscule, he had experience, he knew what skeletons were capable of, but he didn¡¯t understand that point of the manoeuvre, the two arms came out and went away without doing anything.


    "Crap!" he understood toote, he could only watch as Loimos wasunched right at him with terrific momentum.


    Raising his de, he took on the appropriate stance to block most of the damage from the attack.


    He hadn¡¯t been expecting to get drop kicked by a skeleton ever, but here he was, his arms aching and de vibrating from the impact of the undead cannon ball.


    Nothing was broken, he took time to regain full control over his stricken limbs, watching as Loimos put his arms back on, carrying them to himself with rot.


    ¡¯Coming to me in person now? I can¡¯t predict anything this one is doing¡­¡¯ the leader of the hunters didn¡¯t mind the lingering ache in his arms bared his de at Loimos, it made no doubt that a cut from the life infused sword would sh right through the undead like butter, even with his great death force, his reinforcement and usage of it wasn¡¯t good enough to block something like this.


    There was also the de itself, there was clearly something special about it in of itself, was a weapon meant to fight the undead? A sword wasn¡¯t the preferred tool to fight a skeleton with as well.


    Perhaps it was a bluff, the sword was nothing but a distraction to make any undead intelligent enough focus on it.


    Loimos could y the game of misdirection and bluffs as well, he had already shown it.


    cking his jaw loudly, he went into a fighting posture, taught directly by Faraday, it was supposedly his own, original fighting style.


    The death hunter couldn¡¯t recognise it, and steeled his wariness, an entire fighting style had the possibility of being one, big battle art, in this case, the possibilities of the arts were hard to predict and could get rather powerful.


    ¡¯Is this it?¡¯ one wrong move, and he could lose his life, lose it to undead filth.

 Chapter 76: Unfair

    Crawling up the high walls, the death hunter felt his chances diminishing by the seconds as the blood moved, he had no good way of closing the distance between himself and Loimos, the undead was insisting on keeping his distances as well, even when the gap was breached, the skeleton would dodge any attacking his way by taking himself apart andunching his body parts away.


    He wasn¡¯t even attempting anything else, he most certainly could have caught the leader of the hunters by surprised with anotherunching manoeuvre, he had learned many ways of fighting, many tricks and techniques, his augmentation using death force would probably be able of harming the living over the course of multiple hits.


    But he just didn¡¯t, and it was obvious why, the entire area would soon be covered in blighted blood, it wouldn¡¯t take much longer before the halls began to truly begin to flood, the hunter could see that a wall of rot had been erected further behind the undead.


    Loimos could fight without actually having to bother reciprocating attacks, he just had to dodge and run away until victory was achieved.


    ¡¯They aren¡¯t faring well on the other side either¡­¡¯ although his fellow hunters of the dead also benefited from the fact that they weren¡¯t going into this fight with the intent of achieving victory, only aiming to buy some time, they were getting pieced up, not a single one of the massive undead¡¯s swings hadn¡¯t resulted in someone being killed or being put out ofmission.


    Slotriig¡¯s reach was simply much too wide, even the enormous hallways didn¡¯t house enough space to allow the hunters to get afortable distance away from him.


    Disembodied limbs were consumed into the back blood as the protection of life force wore off, elerating the inundation, it was a battle of time, the leader could tell, that they had already lost this fight, had it been only the giant, they could have run away, some of them could have escaped.


    Had it been only the one manipting the rot and blood, they could have defeated it by working together.


    There was no point in musing about what might have happened in another reality, the death hunter stepped back sheathing his de, standing tall as he cupped his two hands together.


    ¡¯The most problematic of the two is¡­¡¯ he stood his ground, his resolution almost tangible, the wavers of his life force told Loimos enough, he sent a pir of rot toward him, it wasn¡¯t quick enough to stop the living from performing this battle art.


    Death hunters were not all elites, but their dedication knew no bounds, men and women from all over the continent, even from beyond its reaches, no matter what life they had walked before joining, all of them could shake hands and face themon enemy.


    Unfortunately, be it the life element, or life force maniption, the most effective weapon against the dead was incredibly rare and difficult to wield, nearly every single one of them had no other choice than to resort to learning battle arts to cover for this.


    The arts were for the most part, able to be performed by anyone, most only required spoken words and movements, though some of them needed additional conditions to function, or forced upon a price to utilise. Continue your journey with NovelBin.C?m


    Such arts however, granted much more potency in return.


    Still, even with arts, the amount known by the death hunters was little, the leader of this group only knew three.


    ¡¯Life, defend from corruption¡¯


    ¡¯Life, grant me strength¡¯


    "Life, I give you everything!"pleting the condition to activate it, the unnamed man felt his life force being sucked away, gathering into a powerful beam.


    Loimos was reminded of the attack used by The First Seed back then, the old tree had been imprecise and slow with its own strike, but the power had been the real deal.


    This one would hit him for certain, its apparition forced back the rot and blood controlled by the skeleton, ensuring that he wouldn¡¯t be able to block it and mitigate some of the impact in any way.


    Loimos had to act quickly, but that was a given, for an undead such as himself, the question wasn¡¯t about whether or not he could react, it was whether or not he had the capability of not being erased by thisst ditch effort.


    The skeleton grabbed his skull, detaching it from his neck, simultaneously manifesting some rot a distance behind himself, converting some of the blood.


    Using himself and his death force as a shield from the life emanating from the rapidly approaching st, he was able to maintain it, throwing his skull back and focusing his death force into the rest of his body.


    The powerful art was slowed for an instant, having to dig through Loimos¡¯s pure death and body, by then, his skull had already reached the rot, exploding andunching it well away.


    The vibrant green beam went straight, ending its course against the surface of the dungeon, the hunter¡¯s bodyid lifeless on the ground, already being consumed.


    It was a familiar situation for Loimos, nothing but his mostly broken skull left from him, he rose what remained of him up with rot, resembling some sort of nightmarish serpent from the depth, his lower jaw hung loosely.


    He had won, thanks to hisst experience with a living sacrificing himself, he hadn¡¯t been caughtpletely off guard by the suicidal move, although that one had been rather quick to use it, hispanions weren¡¯t all dead yet, and he could have attempted to run away, his life imbued body and strikes would have allowed him to breach the wall of rot sealing this portion of the dungeon.


    However, the leader hadn¡¯t taken time to consider this option, he had no idea whether the two undeads were the only ones around, and he would have been right, many armoured undeads had been waiting behind the wall of rot and down into the staircase.


    Instead, he had opted to put his life down to take down Loimos, whose ability to wield rot and blighted blood was simply too dangerous, despite himself not being that powerful, had this been an actual fight one on one, the hunter would havee out victorious.


    Unfortunately, this was never meant to be fair, no one here, dead or living had even thought of such a notion.

 Chapter 77: After

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    Slotriig made quick work of the remaining death hunters, they were just a bunch of average joe¡¯s, nothing like the ones that used to fight on the frontlines back then, holding his oversized sword like a cane, he stabbed one that wasn¡¯t quite dead in the spine as he turned to take a look at Loimos.


    The corpse of the leader was rising up from the ground, putting the white mask back on his face, the actual head of the man was sinking in the blood, the torrent that had been threatening to flood everything flowed away, back down the stairs as the walls of rot vanished.


    "You almost got yourself erased there" spoke the giant undead, Loimos had decided to put his skull in the man¡¯s ce, another trick taught by Faraday, while undeads naturally regrow their bodies, it wasn¡¯t always so simple, taking over a corpse and using its resources to go back to peak condition was preferable.


    Also, the white suit of soft armour the death hunters wore was rather good, itpletely covered the body and came with a mask as well, Loimos was going to take advantage of what was left just lying there.


    The hunter had also cleared himself of his life force on his own, making the attachment even easier than it would normally be, the undead swung the sword a bit, having rarely wielded a sword and only used it like a glorified knife, he was trying to see what was so special with this dark de.


    "This thing just has a rune changing its look inscribed on it, pretty good de though, the craftsmanship isn¡¯t shoddy" Slotriig was more knowledgeable on the subject of weapons, it turned out that it really was nothing more than a bluff, it was meant to make one believe that some sort of curse was imbued into the sword.


    Sheathing the weapon, now that Loimos¡¯s corrosive blood had gone by, nothing remained of the camp and its inhabitants, it looked like no one had ever gone there, the two skeletons retreated back down the staircase, their job here was done.


    It was time to wait again.


    And it didn¡¯t take long for people to notice the disappearance of this group, the other hunters quickly put two and two together, there was no proof of what could have happened to them when they went to check, but it was rather obvious that they had been swiftly wiped out.


    In the depth of this dungeon, were sounds of heavy armours clinking, it didn¡¯t even have to have been silent, but clearly, dangers greater than the living armours and undeads roaming the halls hade out of hiding.


    "What do you reckon we should do? Ilmael¡¯s troop wasn¡¯t a bunch of pushovers, he himself was in line to be a leader in zombie hunts" one of them shook her head, they were all dressed in much the same fashion as Ilmael had been, and thus, the same way Loimos currently was now.


    To her, they were clearly out of their depths right now.


    "We should back down for now and at least call for the Phanes church-" she spoke her mind, quickly cut off.


    "Their priests and pdins won¡¯t show their faces for a dungeon, unless we can prove that those undeads aren¡¯t just summoned by the dungeon" everyone sighed loudly, the worshippers of Phanes, a god of life, were just as, if not more, belligerent when it came to undead matters.


    However, they weren¡¯t nearly as quick on the uptake, despite having ess to holy energy, holy energying from the following of Phanes carried some aspect of life as well, making them exceptionally effective.


    s, they mostly cared about cleaning up the mess, rather than working to prevent it.


    "Sure, the skeleton encased in armour may be dungeon spawns, but what about the rot down there? I am telling you, that makes no sense for monsters to diverge so strongly from the theme to be down there, there has to be an outsider in there" another one was certain of his im.


    "Speaking of the rot, I did some checks up on this, and it somewhat sounds like an undead that was spotted in Throdqdmond, remember the massacres? The skeletonunched itself down into the Elephant Cave System, considering the newly discovered part of the dungeon, it is very likely that it goes much deeper¡­"


    "You think that undead could have gained ess to the dungeon from the caverns? A dungeon should only have one entrance, but if the rot is truly associated with that filth, then it is hard for me to find fault in that reasoning, it lines up perfectly" silence befell the room as the hunters thought for a moment, their attention brought elsewhere upon wearing two simultaneous ps.


    "I knew it, rot you say? It does line up perfectly!" everyone stayed silent, recognising the neer, and intruder.


    "Miss Rummy? I thought you had gone with Mister Abraham and Mister ¨¦chs to investigate some Nosferatu vampires¡­" the woman from before spoke up first, since no one else felt like engaging the blonde girl in conversation.


    "That was a false lead, just a thrall, dealt with within a minute!" Rummy began circling around the masked hunters, her sses clicked on.


    "In any case, unlike the others, I never gave up on tracking down that skeleton, I got in touch with the Bethome Meleme and forced her hand a bit to help research on the Elephant Cave System and this dungeon" everyone perked their ears up, Meleme was not only a highlypetent historian, she was also an avid supporter of their cause.


    It was rather obvious since her usually pristine, and unbiased writings always took on a different form when undeads were involved.


    "What did you find out?" asked another one.


    "Ahaha, Aah, you guys should all pull out" she advised them, her yful tone dying down for a moment.


    "W-"


    "Don¡¯t ask, Meleme is writing on it at the moment, my lips are tied until it is released, but know this: This isn¡¯t something we death hunters can take on without seriously going all in, give up and don¡¯t bother spending any of your resources on this ce, go back to your usual spots and do something more productive, this dungeon, and that skeleton I was after are both out our reach" she took a seat on a nearby barrel.


    Not one of them felt like giving up without knowing why, but despite her antics, Rummy was reliable enough, directly linked to the two best vampire hunters of the present, she was said to be next in line as their leader after ¨¦chs, although that reality was a frightening one.


    "Where is Ilmael anyways?"


    "Most likely defeated in action¡­"


    "Ah shit, he was only mildly afraid of me" Rummy grimaced, and everyone just acted as though they didn¡¯t hear anything, scattering away under the pretence that they needed to prepare for their departure.

 Chapter 78: Jungle

    "I am gonna be honest girls, it¡¯s now or never at this point, the death hunters have pulled out and cleared off everything, the adventurers and explorers, as idiotic as they may be, are starting to get cold feets which all of the disappearances recently, soon, only the insane and foolest of fools will be daring to go beyond the secret passage" Pierre-Orn¨¦e spoke his mind, Bough chuckling creepily in the background, absolutely folded with hrity for some unknown reason.


    The halbardier nced at his fellow royal guard, doing nothing to silence the tall freak.


    "Under normal circumstances, I would have rmended for you to follow the lead and get the hell out of here, but these are special circumstances, it is a call of destiny, or fate, in any case, I still rmend for you to take the hint, worst thing that could happen is Audit bursting out of a random corner and dragging you five back to this dungeon" he looked around at each of their faces.


    ¡¯Why are those little girls looking at me like that? Am I not speaking reason?¡¯ he repressed the will to hit them over the head with his fist capable of breaking walls and sighed through his helm instead.


    "But do what you want, I personally wouldn¡¯t willingly throw myself into actual decay and blood so vile it turned darker than the night" he didn¡¯t know why he was bothering trying to help them, they weren¡¯t even remotely kids, had his age begun to make him see youngsters as children?


    Now that was something to truly be wary of, and with that thought, he understood why Bough was chuckling like a schoolgirl, the big man had already noticed this.


    "Oh, Pierre-Orn¨¦e, the deadliest warrior working under his majesty is getting softer"


    "I despise you"


    The two of them went back and forth after the five adventurers had already left, it appeared like they had suddenly begun to fancy their chances were many more, trained professionals with years of experience working together had failed entirely.


    That was thanks to a little implement that had under their sleeves, Marlene had spent multiple years in this world by now, she wasn¡¯t taking this dungeon lightly, but it was clear that all of those that had perished hadcked something.


    They weren¡¯t brave enough, or rather, they were overly cautious.


    Being careful was good and all, but they had all decided to work by setting camps up regrly and trying to fight against the rot from below, they always spent too much time standing idly by the staircase leading down.


    So it was no surprise that they would always suffer the same fate and vanish alongside their camps, they were leaving themselves wide open for an ambush, it couldn¡¯t be known clearly what truly happened to those people, but the issue leading to their demise was rather obvious.


    The two elves, Ariandnel and Irgot couldn¡¯t help but wear their thoughts on their faces at the moment, Tilke was just like them but simply didn¡¯t show it, they still remembered Marlene¡¯s and Iritim¡¯s plot.


    "Humans are truly the masters of deception, I shudder" the ogress muttered.


    The two human girls¡¯s ploy was simple, yet quite ridiculous, no one believed that Iritim could muster up a sermon capable of convincing the remaining explorers to go along with them, but they had underestimated the intensity of their priestess.


    Some grown men began crying as she ruthlessly used the full capacity of her lungs to shout at all of them, and also used her very priestly skills to make her words more convincing and inspiring.


    Some may say that it was tant maniption, they were right.


    There were no authorities to stop her however, no crimes were thusmitted, that was how it worked after all.


    The group and their new allies, inspired by the grace of Iritim¡¯s goddess of victory, were dragged along to their imminent wealth, or demise.


    Ploughing through the first part of the dungeon was easy, so was the second part, although the group¡¯s teamwork wasckluster since it consisted of a bunch of parties and lone wolves grafted together.


    But only the five of them were equipped with a special item, a ne that had much the same effect as the death hunter¡¯s art, ¡¯Life, defend from corruption¡¯, only that the object furnished life force from itself rather than utilising the wearer¡¯s own.


    The other¡¯s would have to make do with whatever they had.


    There it was, the unexplored staircase, in this dungeon of metal, it was nearly impossible to force your way through with explosives and the like, much too tough and rapidly self-repairing.


    They all stepped down, each and everyone¡¯s figure covered by a faint sheen, traces of Iritim¡¯s blessing casted upon them, a blessing casted by a priestess of the goddess of victory naturally made it more likely for triumph to be the oue for each and every person affected.


    The instant they made it down the stairs, carefully making their way further in so as to avoid getting into contact with the rot, with the life-imbued item, the rot moved away on its own, all sounds stopped.


    The usual cacophony brutally ceased, it was like all eyes in the dungeon had turned on them. Read exclusive adventures at NovelBin.C?m


    Someone turned around to look up the flight of stairs, only greeted by a closing wall of durable metal.


    The few able to do so had already brought out their lights, be it mundanentern or via spells of some sort, whilst light wasn¡¯t missing, visibility was still terrible, rot grew like invasive moss everywhere, imitating vines and tall grasses in a most horrible way, everything filled to the brim with toxic blood, the slightest of grazes was certain to get one covered in it.


    Everyone here either had durable bodies or ways to shield themselves from the corrosion, but many clothes were ruined, and some of the more unlucky ones sported what looked like chemical burns, others looked as if a cheese grater had been brushed over their skin amongst others.


    The diversity in injuries from a single source was strange, armour and clothes also suffered from different sorts of damage, some even rusted from the contact.


    They kept on carving their way through the jungle of putrefaction.

 Chapter 79: Odd

    It was no simple affair, the putrefied reek in the air made most blink more often than they would like, tears filled their eyes over and over again, until it all dried out, many had begun to regret their decisions, but there was no going back, the way had closed behind their backs, they could only persist against this environment built with products of death.


    The paths avable were tight, forcing them to crouch or even crawl in certain parts, the deeper they went, the less the decay seemed to be willing to back down even in the presence of life, forcing its way closer and closer to them, everything seemed to be somehow growing quieter and quieter.


    The explorers had already been the only source of sounds for a while now, their narrowing surroundings only forced them to repress themselves, no one said anything, all of them subconsciously tried to be as small as possible, somehow fearing that they would alert something.


    Iritim silently casted miracles upon everyone periodically, keeping their minds in the right ce, preventing anyone from suddenly starting to freak out, the travel across this wretched dungeon soon reached a greater ce.


    A wide, open room, rot was still present all around but not nearly as oppressive, the ground was the familiar lustrous metal rather than abject grass of rot, they had all been moving around, contorting themselves to avoid the decay and getting its special, showery surprise.


    Those that had gotten marked by its filthy embrace had required excessive healing, despite not being outrageously powerful in its varied effects, the injuries it did manage to leave vehemently fought against their removals, the few healers had expended way too much energypared to the sort of wounds.


    "Let¡¯s take a rest here" Marlene spoke the awaited words, everybody sighed in relief, brightening up when she tapped on a ring on her index finger, bringing out necessities out of thin air.


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    The morose mood was quelled just like that, the five girls moved away, the two elves appearing rather concerned about something, in fact, Tilke also appeared with a frown on her red face.


    "There is definitely someone missing¡­" Irgot started first, installing a cold shudder into everyone as they turned and tried to see for themselves, absolutely unable to notice anyone missing.


    "It must have been one of the solo adventurers, otherwise a teammate would have alerted us already" she continued before Ariandnel took the lead.


    "I heard some sort of whooshing sound at some point, like something was quickly pulled away, but in those tight tunnels, impossible to see anything happen, though, it¡¯s pretty weird that this was the only noise I was able to hear, or that no else noticed anything despite the absolutely silence we were in" she shifted ufortably, it was rather obvious what had happened to that missing member.


    "I didn¡¯t notice any of that, but I have to admit, it feels like something has been watching us for a while now, I supposed it was just the feeling of being so close to the rot, since it¡¯s apparently one big thing from what I heard" Tilke shrugged, looking at the unsuspecting, enrolled adventurers, feeling quite sorry for them, the tunnels of decay weren¡¯t gone for good, more would be snatched up for certain.


    "Hum, I¡¯ll set up a barrier with scriptures then, at least for now, I don¡¯t know whether it would be best to force through and hope not too many are taken away, or to remain still for now and try to lure out whatever is hiding inside the rot" Iritim rubbed her nape, they had went directly in because they had considered staying put as dangerous, did it apply here as well though?


    "Alright girls, look at me and don¡¯t react okay?" Marlene spoke in a suspiciously low tone, even cing herself so that Tilke obstructed the sight of her to the rest of the adventurers and putting one hand in front of her mouth.


    "We haven¡¯t gone down in numbers actually"


    "Huh? But I am certain that someone is missing, like, I can¡¯t tell who exactly, but it just seems obvious" Irgot was rather confident in her earlier im, which was supported by the sound Ariandnel heard.


    "I mean, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s not that we are missing someone, but that someone lookspletely different?" no one turned to take a look at the group, everybody just acting like they were thinking deeply about something, even though beads of sweat were running down their faces.


    "Actually¡­ Yeah, but how the hell are we supposed to know? We just dragged in whoever, we didn¡¯t ask their names, we barely looked at their faces and such, there are groups and loners, if it was a loner that was reced, then no one will know!" it was a rather difficult situation, they had conscripted so many people to help them, but it wasing back to bite them.


    "I mean, this dungeon is filled with living armours and undeads, unless a third type of monster showed up, our imposter should be one of those, right?" Tilke rubbed her chin thoughtfully.


    "She¡¯s right, we could just look around, or, I could add specificities on my barrier" Iritim smirked, a glint in her eyes as she pulled out the necessary equipment for her to put a barrier.


    Normally, a holy barrier shouldn¡¯t permit for an undead to remain in, but considering that there was the possibility that it could be something else, the priestess simply had to add conditions on her barrier, she had the qualifications to do something like that.


    Without wasting any second, she naturally began the process, inscribing scriptures on the floor with a paste diligently, having done this action plenty of times before, it didn¡¯t take her long to finish the foundations for her barrier.


    Some of the adventurers were already sleeping soundly, exhausted from all that exertion and pressure, the group of five paid close attention to the loners in particr, but couldn¡¯t notice anything too suspicious about any of them.


    With a p of her hands, Iritim erected the barrier, there was no way for her conditions to be bypassed, she had only allowed inside the people that had entered the dungeon with them, excluding monsters as well for good measure.


    Yet, nothing happened.


    "Huh, has anyone left the premises? Marlene, count again"

 Chapter 80: Greed

    "No, the amount hasn¡¯t changed¡­ Maybe no one was reced after all, but if that¡¯s true, then our instincts are way off and that leaves a bunch of things without answers" Marlene squinted her eyes, not convinced much.


    "I think someone over there just wentpletely limp though" Irgot pointed out, Iritim expected the intruder to get booted out of the barrier instantly, not for one of the adventurers to pass out.


    "He looks dead to me" Arandniel looked left and right, by now, everyone else was lying down, sleeping or not paying attention to them in any way, getting the clue Irgot used one of her abilities, shrouding the surroundings a way that made everything harder to perceive, making it highly ignorable. Discover stories at NovelBin.C?m


    The elf shed open the man¡¯s gambeson, revealing a gaping hole, his chest and stomach cavity had both beenpletely hollowed, his ribs sticking out chaotically, bearing marks of having been eaten away by acid, a clear signs that his insides had been dealt with by the ck blood.


    No trace of anything foreign was inside, taking closer looks around, this wasn¡¯t the only signs of damage, thin passageways appeared to have been carved all the way across the inside of his body, considering that this guy had still been moving a few moments prior to the barrier being erected, he had been puppeteered.


    No wonder no one was able to notice something was off, the sensation of somebody missing was simply wrong, their corpse was still there, moving with them.


    "Since it wasn¡¯t an entire being, but just a part having been injected inside a person, the barrier erased it all" the priestess dusted herself and stood up.


    "What do we do with the body now? Do we tell the others or¡­?" Tilke questioned, looking up at the ceiling.


    The five of them looked back at one another for a few moments, their decision making interrupted as the rot around began to move, making way for armoured skeletons, many of them.


    As they revealed themselves, the usual sounds they produced became apparent, leading everyone else to be alert, simultaneously, the rot started to expand, closing in on the previously vast room, spitting blood as it went.


    Thanks to their equipment, the five girls were free from the hold of the blighted blood, unlike the rest who, for the most part,cked a good way of shaking it off as it crawled up their legs and restricted their movements, making them easy targets for the heavy weapons of the metal skeletons.


    Blocking the strike of a sword, Marlene¡¯s sword seemed to faintly glow for a second before she counterattack, cleaving right through the undead¡¯s sturdy defences, leaving it to fall into two pieces.


    "There are too many of them, we move on!" she spoke, not too loudly lest the trapped adventurers heard her.


    Outrunning and out manoeuvring the encased undeads when their feet weren¡¯t tied down was no issue, especially since they prioritised cleaving down the few adventurers trying to fight back.


    "I feel like we could have made it just as well without them, I feel a bit bad now" Irgot spoke as she looked back at them getting sliced up mercilessly, their bodies then covered in blood and consumed, some of them even dissolved alive as they fell right down, the rotten liquid seeping through their mouths and noses, eating through their eyes in only a few instants whilst their innards were stabbed by other undeads.


    They stood no chance, were taken by surprise and had been standing right in enemy territory.


    "Huh¡­"


    "Their sacrifices were all for the glory of Nike and our imminent victory upon this dungeon!" Iritim was swift to ce value upon their deaths, and just as she did so, they arrived inside yet another stairway.


    Only that they descended upon this one for days, they had to take stops and rest multiple times, there was no rot or blood here, there were no sounds indicating the presence of other undeads, only stairs, upon stairs, upon stairs, upon more stairs.


    Nothing pursued them either, what had happened up in the room above had remained there, knowing this, it was hard not to feel bad for the drafted people, or even for those that had camped in front of the first set of steps down.


    All this time, it was only needed for them to rush through without any thoughts, the death hunters, with their numbers and life arts would have easily made it all the way down there, their caution had been warranted but unnecessary either way.


    Although the threat that had taken all of those people down hadn¡¯t shown itself just yet.


    Soon, they arrived before a great gate, and Marlene could tell.


    "That¡¯s a boss gate alright, everyone feeling good, well rested? This is where the real challenge is!" she was excited, but also starting to feel nervous, all in all, this dungeon wasn¡¯t very dungeon-like, only the uppermost portion had any sort ofbyrinth, the part filled with rot was more so a straight path leading to a straight path leading down.


    This was no dungeon promising treasures and rewards, that they had all known from the very beginning, in fact, when they had found the cube opening the way, apanied with a description of what was sealed here, they hadn¡¯t been certain whether to go there or not.


    But, this here was the key to them not having to work another day in their lives!


    Felling a close member of the long gone undead king was certain to get them undying praises and rewards, instead of spending their lives roaming around, hoping for luck to strike, they were going to put it all on the line for a chance at taking that luck for themselves.


    Also, it was rathermon for seals to sap the energy of the one being locked down, after all, seals couldn¡¯t be trusted tost forever, they would inevitably degrade as time went by, the purpose was to weaken the target and then have someone skilled swoop in after a while and permanently dispatch the threat.


    This seal was one set by the gods themselves, Iritim was a learned priestess, so she knew of the ¡¯Great Silence¡¯, when the link between the gods above and mortals below was pretty much severed, this also entailed that the divine seal had also endured a great blow.


    The seal was weak, and this had pushed them to rush their decision of taking this fight for themselves, since it could break on its own at any time.

 Chapter 81: The Final Room

    The immense gate opened nearly without a sound, they had been expecting to be struck by a wave of dust, ancient air trapped beneath the walls for centuries, but there was none of it,e to think of it, it was already weird that they could breath so well at such a depth under the earth.


    The inside suddenly lit up with blue mes, how nice of the owner to grant them sight himself, when he would benefit from the pitch ckness, not at all a worrying sign for what was toe, nothing but typical theatrics.


    Immediately, the five explorers¡¯s faces turned grave as something was off, one would be expecting a singr entity sealed at the end, the metal chrome skeleton dressed in robes of the same quality as his bones made for a good candidate for that, sitting on his throne as though expecting visitors.


    The problem were the other two nking him by his sides, to the right of the one presumed to be the sealed battle mage, Faraday, stood a muchrger being in armour, one that hadn¡¯t been mentioned amongst the writings they had discovered back then, despite the fact that Slotriig had been remaining to his master¡¯s side ever since then.


    The stalwart undead hadn¡¯t been brought here to be sealed with Faraday after, he hade himself and stood guard after the undead king was himself sealed, which had taken ce not long after Faraday¡¯s.


    To the left, standing even more motionlessly than two immobile skeletons, someone that they may have mistaken for a death hunter were it not from the toxic ck blood seeping from the two, minuscule eye holes of the once pristine white mask.


    The white attire had been stained with the ever so dark blood as a whole, appearing like it had been left to the element of a forsaken oubliette for years, but the valiant hunters of the dead had disappeared not so long ago.


    Loimos, once again, despite being the weakest in the room, managed to be the creepiest one by far, but all of the attention nheless went to Faraday, he rose one hand up, his ancient presence captivating the sight of the five adventurers thoroughly.


    ¡¯This is bad¡­¡¯ shared by all of the members of this little cohort, it was rather obvious that not only was their target apanied by worrying subalterns, he himself didn¡¯t appear very weakened.


    Pity that they had arrived here after Loimos, or even just a bit earlier.


    Using the plentiful corpses he and Slotriig gathered outside, he had used his primeval rot in conjunction with the harvested material to produce beautifully dense death miasma, cing some generators near the edges of the seal to weaken it over time, he had also used some to recover some of Faraday¡¯s death force, his strength.


    With the old and weak seal slowly being eroded by Loimos¡¯s pure miasma, and its captive regaining his former powers, this prison was deemed to soon crumble, Quideos Audit¡¯s prediction seemed nigh, were Faraday and his troops unleashed upon the outside, no one would be able to even begin to estimate the damages that would ensue.


    "Wee visitors!" Faraday had always wanted to say that, but he had been left with no challengers ever since then.


    Thest thing he had the asion of killing was an actual deity, albeit a lowly and rather idiotic one, but a godly figure still, his undead self was itching to reap life once more, even if lesser in quality.


    "I am Faraday, the star of this dungeon, but not of the show" as he delightfully spoke to the adventurers, who were already considered turning tails, Slotriig suddenly moved, a veritable blur that they only noticed after he had already acted.


    Picking Loimos up and chucking him like a cannonball at one of the members of the team, tackling Iritim right out of the room, the doors shutting themselves with a m right after.


    "Now" pping his metallic hands, Slotriig moved back to a wall of the room, nting his sword into the ground, resting both hands on its pommel.


    "Come" he ushered them closer, standing up from his throne and summoning forth a suspiciously, non-shiny metal staff, which looked more like a beaten up rod than a mage essory.


    "I haven¡¯t gotten the asion to put to the test all of that lightning I have absorbed" he proimed to no one in particr, mming his feet down on the floor, the impact spreading throughout the room, trembling, it soon spread beyond the walls and onto the rock walls of the caverns behind, copse sounded all around.


    And he appeared right in front of the four with a sh.


    Iritim grunted as she emitted a wave of holy energy from the center of her body, pushing Loimos away, catching himself by sticking to the ground with blood.


    Swiftly pouncing right back on, trying to grab onto her face right on, his death infused body pushing against the life produced by the ne with much less difficulty that the priestess would have liked.


    His hand threatened to tear a chunk out of her visage, priests and clerics were generally on the backline after, simr to mages in that regards


    Although, Iritim had held such a position in her group, Loimos, who had been observing them from beyond the rot their entire travel there hadn¡¯t missed some key details, such as the fact that the rest of her group didn¡¯t seem to be keen on protecting her, or the way she had of carrying herself, it was subtle, but since it wasn¡¯t perfect, the undead had noticed.


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    He begun this confrontation without using his sword to get a good idea of just what she could do, even had he nned on evading her, he wasn¡¯t quick enough and was swung right above the priestess¡¯s head, with minimal energy reinforcement too, those robes were ample not just for show, but to conceal as well.


    Instead of crashing against the hard ground, Loimos harmlessly sshed into blood and rot, twisting his wrist around, he grabbed onto her arm as well and produced toxic blood point nk, eating right through her sleeve before pried herself away from him and made some distance, beginning to recite a prayer with frightening speed without sacrificing any spelling.


    Something about enclosing, and just as described, a small, sphere-shaped barrier formed around Loimos, manifested from holy energy, it should be extra effective against the undead.


    Loimos filled in entirely with petrol-like blood, soon punching right through without showing signs of being affected negatively by the holy.


    ¡¯Just my rotten luck! An undead unaffected by holy energy!¡¯ she had heard of this possibility but had never actually encountered such an event, Iritim couldn¡¯t rely on the simple fact that her energy was like poison to him, meaning that her non-offensive prayers and sacred gestures were utterly useless.

 Chapter 82: Surprise

    "In this case¡­" Iritim focused her reinforcement into her legs for an instant, unexpectedly closing the gap in between the two of them right after willfully creating it, transferring most of her augmentation to her right fist, shended an uppercut squarely on Loimos, despite the blow not actually connecting with the mask itself, spiderweb cracks formed on its base.


    ''I''ll just crush you to dust!'' Loimos''s head was thrown up by the blow, he enclosed both of his arms on her anyways, unbothered but hitting air nheless, she crouched down and moved to his side kicking up to the side of his face, the soles of her shoes digging in entirely.


    It was all the more impressive considering that Loimos was a whole head taller than the priestess, yet, reaching so high didn''t throw her off bnce in the least, bending the knee of the leg still touching the ground and retaining her equilibrium whilst dodging the undead''s sudden punch.


    Following with a leg sweep, Loimos demonstrated that he too could twist his body as he wishes, of course, he had no flesh or muscles to worry about.


    Iritim couldn''t move away normally, but manifesting two small barriers by her sides, she used them as leverages to pull herself out of here, sessfully evading the attack.


    Holy energy coursing through her body, she directed a portion toward her hands, sending forth a small spike of energy straight at Loimos''s head, he rushed forward, dropping to his knees to avoid the attack, sliding along the ground as ck blood manifested below him, following him as he went.


    Rot appeared behind Iritim, threatening to bind her as it expanded to her sides, she called forth another barrier, and instead prepared to meet Loimos, he stood up mid-glide, throwing a kick aimed at her guts.


    The priestess had already guessed it, but the undead before her actually seemed rather knowledgeable in hands-to-handsbat, he may have been trying to misdirect her with his first few, more savage attacks, but it seemed obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing.


    Reinforcing her forearms, she blocked the strike, one of her brows raising a great bit as she instantly realised that it was much too weak, Loimos had barely empowered his strike with death force, instead, a pocket of rot had appeared in between his kick and Iritim''s defence, crushed by the blow, it exploded with an obscene amount of acidic ck blood.


    Its consistency made like that of water, its property concentrated to be has acidic has possible, the priestesses robe wasn''t a mere piece of clothing, so even as she was caught by surprise, the drops didn''t went right through, one simply grazed the side of her forehead, leaving a nasty chemical burn and going right through her hair.


    The intense pain assaulting her senses made her grit her teeth, she didn''t let go of the opportunity she had however, grabbing the skeleton''s ankle with both of her hands, she sent strong pulses of holy energy as she threw him away, sting it apart from sheer force.


    Struck by a sudden formation of rot in her movement, it was easily removed, just in time to witness Loimos soften the throw by catching himself with even more rot.


    "It''s honestly aggravating how versatile that crap is" she spoke out loud, moving away from her previous spot and dispelling the barrier holding the previously manifested rot back.


    Thankfully, she had managed to eliminate the ck blood that had gotten in the wound on her face, she wouldn''t want to know how this thing performed if it was allowed inside of her veins, she raised her arms into a defensive pose.


    "You aren''t susceptible to holy energy, this must mean that you were a user of it in life, surely, the undead life isn''t what you wish for?" she had heard of undeads that didn''t react to holy energy in general, but she had also been told that those undeads received such a blessing because they had been users of it themselves, their bodies, even deceased, remembered the holy.


    Which was why even the dead could be clerics and priests, it was rare, but not unheard of.


    Loimos appeared as calctive and rather sly, so she guessed that he was surely capable ofmunicating and remembering his past. Chapter Read:


    Her thoughts meant nothing, and Loimos had already arrived at the conclusion that there was no need for him to speak, with a swing of his arm, a line of death miasma was sent forward, not certain that her basic barriers could stop the smoke of an undead attuned with the holy, Iritim had no other choice than dodge.


    As she did so, Loimos began to move, crawling along the ground like mad beast, the priestess certainly couldn''t have been expecting that he would be faster when made to move along the floor, he threw himself forward striking her in the side, pushing her away before raising more miasma and hiding himself within.


    Focusing her energy, Iritim appraised the state of the ne around her neck, it''s effects were certainly great, however, she couldn''t help but notice that its strength had diminished with each of the strikes the undead hadnded on her, as such, she wasn''t going to test her chances with the miasma it had created.


    Bursting with holy energy, the miasma was cleared without resistance, and she was punched straight in the face, once again, without much force, ck blood eating through the softer bits of her skin without problem and even corroding her teeth.


    Having been preparing another miracle, her hands, shrouded with sharp energy, pierced right through Loimos''s chest, annihting part of his ribs and spine.


    More ck blood flowed onto her arm as the rot within Loimos contracted, leaving her stuck in ce, raising her other hand, she hurriedly weaved in another attack, a spinning discus enveloping her hand.


    The rot pinning her in ce was infused with Loimos''s potent death force, ensuring that she wouldn''t break out easily, aiming to cleave him and half, and perhaps even her own arm if necessary, she could see that the undead wouldn''t have time to stop her from doing so, both of his arms in poor positions.


    The sliding of something sharp sounded out, a tendril of nothing but rot had creeped out from behind the skeleton and wrapped around the handle of the sword at his waist, it unsheathed the de andshed at her, or so she believed, the rot wasn''t strong enough to swing a sword effectively, it only harmlessly threw the sword in a random direction.


    But it was enough, Iritim had halted her movements for a moment, two sharp bones pierced through and out of Loimos''s fist, shing right across the priestesses neck.


    Her miracles slowly degraded into thin air as she bled out, clutching at her neck, Loimos freed her arm and stepped back as she slumped to the ground.

 Chapter 83: Good Fun After Years Of Confinement

    Moving with swiftness that was unseen by the four women, he extended his open palm and struck Tilke right in the chest, not too powerfully, measuring his strength to merely push her away, then, without utilising his previously overwhelming speed, he rose his staff of sort and brought it down toward Marlene, who, having already taken her sword out, was able to block the strike.


    "Ah, that is interesting!" like reading an open book, Faraday was able to clearly see the inner workings of the ability she had just used, indeed, a simple block of her paltry de shouldn''t have stopped this strike so simply, the force flowed from the staff and into the de.


    Swinging her sword, it was clear that it now carried the force Faraday''s blow and that of the unwanted''s own sh.


    This allowed her to easily cleave through the skeletons encased in metal by parrying them only once, an ability that was both a perfect defence and great offence, Faraday blocked the strike with his pinky.


    His interest was piqued, but he was not impressed, backhanding straight in the face, just in time for Ariandnel to shoot a plethora of arrows straight in the air, the arrows each defied thews of gravity as they flew through the air, homing in on Faraday without losing even a slight bit of their momentum.


    "Would you look at this Slotriig, the guys that came to destroy me are actually not bad! Not anywhere near an Ynig¨®s or Liameilos but then again, they are exceptions" reminiscing aloud, he flicked the pesky projectiles away, not even turning to look as he clearly sensed Irgot appearing behind him.


    It was rather obvious that shing and piercing would be rather ineffective against a skeleton forged out of steel, so the dark elf mmed the base of the hilt right on the back of his skull, for no damage whatsoever, Irgot felt a ripple coursing throughout her entire skeleton.


    Turning his body a bit, he put his arm around the sneaky elf, much in the same an older brother would grab a younger sibling, and headbutted her with much more restraint an actual sibling would have, it still concussed her on the spot, taking hold of her by the back of her cor he dropped her a distance away.


    He then turned and stood perfectly still as Tilke rushed him down, punching him straight to the face, not being very effective, she kept on striking him in the same spot over and over again as he allowed it to happen, the ogress seemed to have activated some sort of self boost, she was going all out, only resulting in her fists bleeding.


    With a flick of her hand, both of her arms were blown away.


    Blocking another attack from Marlene, he grabbed her sword and stopped for a moment, debating what to do, in the end, he let go, knocking more arrows out of the air as he stepped away.


    Throwing his staff like a javelin, he pinned thest standing elf against the wall, which was wholly unnecessary since she had already ran out of arrows, but only the unwanted presence, Marlene had truly caught his interest, after being locked down there for so long, he was really craving some action, and he had also never had the attention to truly test himself since his ying of a god by absorbing all of his lightning.


    Pointing one finger at thest one capable of fighting, he turned his head to the side.


    "Seems like Loimos performed well" he shot a small bolt of bright lightning, it was divine in nature, simr to something formed from holy energy, but much more potent.


    Willingly slowed the bolt down to allow Marlene to block it with her de, he wished to see what would happen.


    The instant Marlene hit the attack, she could tell that its power was much superior to anything she had ever absorbed before, the way out was already blocked, and every else beside her had been put out ofmission, she could have hoped for Iritim to finish on her side and open the way, but that wasn''t very realistic.


    It was do or die, she had to try and defeat Faraday, whilst he was still ying around would be best, clearly, he wasn''t nearly as weakened as he should have been, not only that, he was inpany, instead of shooting the divine lightning right out like she usually would have, she channelled it and used it to reinforce her body.


    "Oh, Slotriig, look at that, she is killing herself!" Faraday pped his hands, sounding like two anvils falling on top of one another.


    "Listen well everyone, whilst that girl is busy adapting to the power of the lightning, I will exin one of the greatest heights of energy maniption" crossing his hands behind his back, he ignored the powering up Marlene and began his exnation, Slotriig shaking his head in the distance, his master was clearly much too bored. Chapter Explore:


    "Zone! What is a zone I hear you asking Miss ogress?" he spoke to the bleeding woman on the floor.


    "Simple, it is the mastery of outer maniption to convert ambient mana in an area into your own, granting you effectively infinity mana, the ability to deny your opponent outer maniption, spawning spells from anywhere within the zone, simply using the mana to instil pressure upon the enemy, or better, inscribe a spell directly into the zone!" he lowered his head.


    "That is the basics of this supreme act, but I have never attained it, the closest I got was my cage, the Faraday cage!" perfectly timed with Marlene growing used to the rampant lightning, he manifested forth the cage in question.


    It was shaped like a sphere, forming directly around the unwanted without allowing her time to react, an act of outer maniption, the divine force was sucked right back out and given back to Faraday.


    "Well, then there is dominion, territory and such, but I seem to have lost most of my audience¡­" Faraday was just clowning around, a very non-undead thing to do but he was still killing them at least.


    "Loimos,e back in, I''ll teach a few more things" he ignored the still living adventurers, motioning for Slotriig to finish the job, which he did by stomping on them.

 Chapter 84: What A Small World!

    The buzzing of insects mixed along nicely with the singing of various birds, the trees were full of vigour, sporting branches full of leaves, many even showing off ripe fruits, the avian wildlife couldn''t resist such juicy goodness, rustling through and skipping around in the ambient heat casted by the oddly shaped sun up above.


    Summer had began, life was thriving and the sun up above had taken on its usual form for the season, resembling a drop splitting into two, somehow, its light was now much, much warmer, only shades could be called fresh, the tall grass and flowers could serve as pockets of heat, the bare soil of the beaten up roads would scorch anyone daring enough to step upon it bare.


    Pushing the sounds of nature further away, the sound of a carriage drawn by two impressive steeds tumbling its way down the unkept paths through the woods, the wheels passing over countless hole and shallow holes, the entire things bouncing up and down as it encountered minuscule, but sturdy pebbles.


    The two horses at the front were starting to struggle, but the coachman would raise his hand, sshing them with fresh water to prevent them from suffering from the heat too much, inside, Milo stared out of one of the openings absentmindedly, he had gotten used to the routine back at the city during the months he had spent there with Helena.


    He was getting quite nervous about this whole academy stuff, frankly, before meeting with her, he had never even heard the word, he had heard of the existence of schools, but simrly, he had never been able to confirm their existences with his own eyes, it was like going on a travel to meet someone who didn''t exist.


    Startled as he felt someone poking his shoulder, he hadn''t noticed Helena casually sliding right next to him.


    "Stop stressing yourself and pay attention to the surroundings, there are bandits in every forest you can think off, try not to get shot in the face" she said, trying to get him to worry about his well being rather than the future, it worked, it was just a little strange to say it like that.


    "Actually, I have heard that the highwaymen haven''t been doing much banditismtely, in fact, it seems like they have begun departing from the area, no one has reported getting robbed by any of the known faces in weeks" the coachman, actually Helena''s main instructor, spoke up, making it apparent in his tone that he didn''t believe it was a good thing.


    Not only did it mean that something was going on, it meant that other bandits would soon take their spots, bandits were all criminals, but ones that had been settled in spots for a long time were always much more courteous and less violent, they would just rob certain caravans and rarely even hurt someone, much less kill.


    It was to the point that merchants actually feltfortable traversing this ce, they knew the bandits, the bandits knew them, everyone would shake hands in agreement of what needed to be paid, after all, the bandits also took care of wild animals and monsters in the area.


    No one minded them, so it was worrying for them to start vanishing without a word.


    "One would sell me back magic items at real good prices too¡­" hemented aloud, scanning the tree line but not sighting anything of importance.


    "Oh, and there is also the fiasco with the metal dungeon a few months back, I am telling you, prices are going to rise and rise for a while until the adventurer get their balls back and start collecting resources again in there" the instructor went on spree ofints, mostly about money and prices, the steel taken from this dungeon was rather widespread after all and was traded at good prices with other nations, with that stopping for even a little while, it was certain to affect the market for a while.


    It may have been fine anywhere else, but Tamaris was a nation of merchants, word had already travelled, they would all be quick to adapt their prices.


    Chapter Find:


    "So, are we getting close or¡­?" Helena tried to stop the endless rants with a question.


    "Not at all!" he instantly replied, making Milo slide down in his seat, the heat was making it hard as well, he just had to sit inside without being exposed directly to the sun and the warmth was still overwhelming, this summer promised to be especially hot.


    Having turned his head to respond, the coachman put his eyes back on the road, rising up an inclination in the road, he noticed a dark spot appearing on the distance, squinting his eyes and brining one hand above his eyes to see better, he could tell that it was a person walking in their direction on the side of the road.


    Augmenting his eyes with mana to get an even better look, that person''s get up immediately made him suspicious, he was wearing a long dark coat, it almost dragged alongside the ground despite looking torn.


    It was clearly something scavenged and old, it looked filthy despite the ckness of the clothing.


    Grey, ample pants held to the legs with bandages, sewn up over and over, the man''s boots were even tied to his feet with pieces of ropes, in dichotomy with the rest of his apparel, the man''s head was wrapped in a white clothes and covered by a white mask.


    Those were much more clearly dirty and aged, in fact, the instructor was near certain that it was stained by multiple bloodstains, all diverging in the time they had been sshed upon this stranger.


    Helena''s main teacher had been around for a long time, he could tell that the mask was that of a death hunter, as such, the solitary disposition of this man was even more suspicious, the fact that not even his hands were visible, also covered by gloves only made him want to turn around.


    To dress like this in such dreadfully, scorching condition only indicated bad business.


    But there was no easy way to turn back on this road, so he persevered, in the worst case scenario, he could always st this man with a spell.


    "Be careful kids" he warned Helena and Milo.


    Soon enough, their paths crossed, both the stranger and the coachman turning their heads to look at one another.


    The instructor halted his breath for a moment as the man held up a piece of paper, a map.


    "Would you happen to know in which direction Findpasser is?" an old, bizarre sounding voice came out from behind the mask.


    As a response, he pointed behind him and told the man to ask there for clearer directions.


    "My Thanks" and just like that the suspicious man went on his way.

 Chapter 85: Crawling Out

    Approximately a month before Milo and Helena were traversing this beaten up road, the sun was barely transforming into his twin-drop form and the days were still rtively cool, the multiple bandit groups prowling the hills and forests were idle as per usual.


    Well, calling them bandits was no longer very urate, their camps resembled settlements ready to be viges and maybe even small-sized towns in the future, their criminal acts were closer to a small toll to pay for passage, they had their own crops and livestocks.


    Having begun to exploit the natural resources of the nearby mountains and woods, it was likely that the former bandit groups would soon disappear altogether, nevertheless, despite their dwelling ces being filled with nonbat-ables, women and children, the men that used to rob entire caravans were still here and well.


    One of them was standing at the entrance of a small cave, leaning against a rocky wall, he wasn''t taking his surveince duty very seriously, inside, sheeps had been gathered recently, they waited to be let out again into a verdoyant meadow until a predator problem was solved.


    There was no need to exin that this former bandit would have preferred not standing there, one hand resting on the hilt a weary sword, he found himself nearly dozing off when the sound of a falling rock attracted his attention.


    "Hmm?" his expression changed for the worst as he thought of the possibility of a cave-in, without thinking much, he rushed inside, it didn''t take him long to reach the ce where the sheeps were kept, all of them uncharacteristically huddled together in a corner, sticking to the walls as if the gue was standing opposite to them.


    The man''s eyesnded on a portion of the wall in front of him, he was able to quickly discover what the sound had been, a rock lodge in the wall had fallen into the enclosure, this was probably what had frightened the cattle.


    Taking a few steps closer, he noticed that the space behind the fallen stone wasn''t filled, it actually opened up into arger cave system.


    Unexpectedly, this little cave was actually linked to the wider Elephant Cave System, though, that wasn''t on the bandit''s mind as his attention was drawn to his chest, a dark de protruding from where his heart was.


    A hand garbed his white quickly covering up his mouth as the sword was pushed further in and twisted, sentencing him for good.


    Loimos noticed no one other than this man was heading into the cave, so he turned his attention to the sheeps, which were all rightfully terrified of him, animals had better instincts than the humans, one look at him was enough for them to know that he shouldn''t be approached, they had no way to run however and seemed to be hoping that staying perfectly still and silent would get them through this.


    The undead advanced upon them and they all began bleating for their dear lives.


    The cave wasn''t far from the main camp, everyone currently in heard it clearly, but as quickly as it started it was over, Loimos was already stepping out of the cave by the time people showed up to see what was the matter.


    The man, the sheep and everything else within grasp had been converted into apressed mass of rot, which was floating up by the undead''s side, his amount of tricks and control over the primeval rot had significantly increased under Faraday''s training and amount of killing he hadmitted, Loimos had learned that the rot converted from things that hadn''t firste from him was especially malleable and potent.


    With a swing of his arm, he struck the ball of fresh decay, sending it hurling toward the wooden wall of the camp, the rot quickly spread over it, sealing off the exit and forming ayer of miasma around itself.


    This camp was rather simple, it was built near a cliffside, which allowed the people here to not to build a wall surrounding their whole camp, the natural terrain served as one already for the greater portion.


    It didn''t take him long to block off the escape routes, but multiple people were already surrounding him, probably not quite realising what he had just done, their equipments were lesser than that of the death hunters Loimos had previously faced in every way, they were less trained, less skilled, they were simply weaker in every sense of the terms, be it in natural body or in powers granted by the system.


    Without knowing that he was an undead, they attacked him, despite all of this, unlike the death hunters, Loimos was facing them alone, and it turned out that they could coordinate their attacks well.


    The fastest one went in for a thrust, his chipped de grazed Loimos''s side as he basically threw himself on the man, the death hunter attire handled the damage from a sh aimed at his back wonderfully.


    Manifested ck blood in his palm, Loimos grabbed the man''s face, making sure the liquid got into contact with his eyes, the skin on his face was burnt away, revealing the sanguine sight hidden beneath, paying no heed to his scream of suffering, he went behind him and grabbed his hair, swinging the pained and helpless man around, preventing his allies from attacking in unison.


    From there, it all went downhill for them, the former bandits had never met significant opposition, none at all in recent years in fact, although their teamwork was good, they had no clue what to do the second Loimos got himself a meatshield, swinging his de coated in his blighted blood, the shallowest of cuts were significant. Chapter Stay:


    ''Only six weapon carriers, others must be out'' Loimos had been preparing for a much harder confrontation, no matter how weak, groups of enemies were always a dangerous bunch, he would know since this was a tactic of the undead.


    Soon enough, he dealt with the nonbatants and with his rot, erased any proof that this entire camp full of people had even existed, he left the premises without waiting for the supposedly remaining bandits, he wasn''t out there specifically for them.


    He was trying to find out where the resting ce of the undead king was situated, however, no one here had been willing to give him an answer, perhaps he should have used his little rot trick to produce a voice instead of speaking with the pale tongue, or perhaps he should have approached them without killing someone first, not that he could have passed of as a normal person after crawling out of the caves.

 Chapter 86: Intercepted

    Loimos''s lone wander through the nearby woods, caves and cliffs wasn''t very fruitful, despite him questioning a number of people, both with words and with actions, no matter who it was, random bandits, someone living out in the wild or caravans going through the area, they all seemed to have no real ideas of who the undead king was and where he was sealed at.


    He had earned a few more cracks on his mask, and skull, acquired some new articles of clothes after getting repeatedly shed and hacked, even having to reattach his right leg at some point after clearing the guts of someone with it.


    He had not been violent with the travellers, he was aware of who he could just carve into pieces without risking getting hunted down, he had shown courtesy to the people going through the area, although they had all seemed wary of him, since he definitely didn''t look amicable.


    Loimos had already learned much from Faraday, after setting up many miasma generators on the outside and inside of the seal, he had gone on ahead, the path to sovereignty of the undead was obviously by unsealing their rightful ruler, Nitok, a skeletal lich that had not only gained the rights for his crown from both the system and the other gravelords thanks to his strength, he also had the respect of the vampires on a whole different level.


    However, Faraday had been sealed a long time ago, Slotriig hade by his sideter when the king was sealed, but it was also a very long time ago, the ces they had mentioned seemed to no longer exist, even their memories erased from the history of the living by time.


    Still, the battle mage was certain that the crypt, and thus royal castle, were Nitok had been sealed would still be intact and well, for it was no mere construction, not only had it been carved out of durable rocks bathed in death forces, the king had coated the entire thing and some of the surroundings with his domain, which was apparently some inborn ability that could be likened to a zone but only superficially since it acted over an area.


    "Not only that, it was a dominion! The melding of both his domain and his mastered zone, allying the aspects of the two abilities, I am confident that no one could have undone it, even after sealing him, Slotriig said that The Elven Light made no move to destroy it" he had said whilst mming his fist up and down enthusiastically.


    Faraday was no gravelord, but he had been a close aide of the king nheless, his belief ought to be urate.


    So, Loimos had also simply been questioning people on such a construct, it had to be a coveted ''dungeon'' or something of the likes.


    The skeleton had gotten multiple leads on multiple crypts said to house powerful undeads that were sealed, Slotriig was only aware of Faraday and Nitok being locked down, he had seemed rather convinced that the gravelords had all safely retreated to their own dwellings, whatever activities they may have been up to since then was unknown.


    Finding the gravelords was naturally another goal of Loimos, but releasing Nitok from his seal took priority for this would inevitably lead to the undead swelling up again.


    With no clear leads though, Loimos was headed for the closest location he had heard of, Findpasser was a city of Tamaris, after getting direction from a passing carriage, he continued on his way.


    What he was going to do was simple, even if he found Nitok first, he was still going to pay a visit to each of those locations, after all, the more the merrier, any added manpower was wee for the righteous quest of ending all that lives.


    After Findpasser, he would head for Weafewand, another city of Tamaris, then Muho Chitai, which was much further away, located in another kingdom entirely and then Bourgliotte, in yet another country.


    Loimos had a lot of walking to do, and there was already an obstacle right in the way, two random men just bursted out of the nearby woods, looking rather spent and staring right at him, clearly, they had business with the lonesome undead.


    The skeleton had dealt with many people ever since he had wiped the existence of this first settlement a few weeks back, he had done so with many others as well, those that had been fortunate enough to not be around for the cleansing were left rather confused since Loimos wouldn''t even leave the houses, huts or such, only the soil that had been stomped over and the paths forged over time were left.


    One might say that those survivors were a bit bummed out at the prospect of their homes, friends and families vanishing without a trace, those two in front of him were no exception, one was a skinny man with rather wide shoulders, the other was young fellow, with rugged face but clean hair, this second one was wearing clothing Loimos was familiar with, in fact, he didn''t seem to be from Tamaris to begin with, even the way he carried himself was way different than what Loimos had gotten ustomed to.


    His clothes were ample, hiding the finer details of his movements, one hand on the scabbard of his de, the other just above its handle, he bent his knees.


    ''He is going to attack, he is either fast or will use a ranged attack'' Loimos recognised the intention.


    "Hey you, you''ve been lurking around for a while haven''t you? Your track is all over the missing camps!" by the looks of it, the skinny man was some sort of expert tracker, a scout or hunter of some sort, after all, Loimos didn''t leave obvious residuals of his presence, he must have followed the track left by his death force.


    Judging by the way they looked at him however, the one speaking did not realise that he was an undead in the least, seeing that he was speaking to him like this and that the other one had not attacked immediately.


    ''The swordsman is powerful'' he assessed before a flood of ck blood came down from him, forming a circle around him, at the same time he had acted, the one that had been ready to strike vanished and then reappeared in his spot.


    It was rather impressive, he had rushed forward, swiftly enough to not be glued to the ground, shing Loimos across the chest and done the same thing backwards, just to return to his previous position in the exact same pose.


    The sh certainly bypassed Loimos defences, but bleeding him wasn''t the way, and he had been able to tell what the swordsman had been up to thanks to reading his life force after the fact.


    The undead looked down at the wound, shrugged his shoulders and spoke up to the swordsman.


    "Pitiful" he provoked him with perfect calmness, the worst way to be provoked was really by someone who seemed like they couldn''t care less about your existence, it irked the man and with a slight ent, he announced his next move.


    "Your head ising off" assuming a simr, yet a much different posture, he was ready to put his threat to action immediately.

 Chapter 87: Esteemed Character

    Crouching low to the ground, the swordsman with a one-edged de pointed the end of his sword at Loimos, who stood in ce, surrounding by a puddle of ck blood, although the undead could trace the man''s movement''s after the fact thanks to his residuals of life force, but his haste surpassed even his superior senses.


    Disappearing from his spot once more, the skinny man in back appeared confident that his colleague would sessfully deal with Loimos, only, he didn''t reappear in his previous position as he did just before, his eleration was cut off as he sank into the ground right in front of the masked cadaver.


    Secretly, the skeleton had been finely controlling his corrosive blood to eat through the ground around him, forming pits just deeper enoughpared to the beaten up road to catch the swordsman slipping.


    His concentration whilst using his sword arts was dispelled, it was like identally going two or more steps down the staircase, this sudden feeling, like one was free falling and going to plummet to the ground like a disgracious bag of bricks.


    The man was quick to gather himself however, ignoring the growing sense of numbnessing from the leg deep in the tar-like substance, he managed to swing his de anyways by quickly sheathing it again to meet the requirements for another sword arts he specialised in, unleashed a dreadfully quick cleave at the undead''s neck, chopping the head off and sending it rolling away.


    "You had me worried for a moment there" the man in the back rubbed his weary forehead, for a moment, he felt like he saw the swordsmanpletely losing on such a puny trick and provocation.


    "Come on now, just one mistake-" his speech was interrupted by the scrunch caused as two bone spikes went right through his skull.


    Starting down from the chin, all the way up the top of his head, making a quick a passage through both of his eyes, the headless corpse had feinted stumbling back for a second, instead, it had just taken the win with a particrly nasty uppercut.


    From where he stood, the skinny fellow couldn''t quite tell what had just happened, after all, when decapitated, people were supposed to die, so surely, the two bloody tips protruding from his ally''s head were naught but his imagination.


    Busy in his own confusion, he was an easy target, Loimos retracted the murderous ws and ced his arm on top of the swordsman''s head, whose body had yet to realise that it was deceased.


    Using him as a crutch, the two bone weapons sprouted out from his fist once more, only this time, they were shot out at a reasonably high velocity, it wasn''t anything to write home about but to shoot down a stationary target, it was more than enough.


    Lacking in uracy, only one of the two struck the target head-on, embedding itself in the man''s neck, the other only grazing the jugr, still, rhythmically, as his heart beat, blood would spurt out from the wound.


    He weakly bled to death on the ground as Loimos went to fetch his head, sticking it back on, he used rot to hold it ce whilst also manifesting some miasma to elerate the process of recovery, with his current death force mastery alongside his primeval rot, he could reattach lost limbs much quicker than before.


    Recuperating one from scratch would still be an issue, but there were few ways that one could find their body parts annihted in their entirety, he quickly cleaned up the mess, leaving on the hole he had left in the road as proof of his passage.


    No one else showed up out of nowhere to slow him down, he encountered quite a few other carriages along the way, some more heavily defended than others, most seemed to be transporting young people like the first one he had encountered just before his little confrontation.


    "Hey lone wanderer!" one of such youngsters thought it was a good idea to call out to the clearly suspicious man on the side of the road.


    "Mydy, it may not be wise to-" apart from the knights on horseback circling the carriage, there was another sitting opposite of the girl, and he seemed rather familiar with her for he seemed to already know exactly what she was up to.


    "Calm your pants Gelter, this sir over there, doesn''t he seem rather skilled to you?" she was leaning over the window of her transportation, Loimos could only make out her face and part of the uniform-like clothing she was wearing.


    Clearly, she was no backwater peasant, her long, dark red hair and golden eyes were already enough for anyone to guess, but she was also dressed with some military get-up, a white uniform decorated with, frankly, too many golden and light blue ornaments.


    "I suppose he does" Gelter could only tell the truth to hisdy "although-"


    He hadn''t caught up on Loimos''s true nature, but he could clearly tell as a seasoned knight that something was simply off about him, the undead was making a good job of putting up a ''lively'' enough posture, even making unnecessary movements, sometimes slowing down or elerating in his steps just in case someone was looking from far away.


    It was all calcted to appear as natural as possible.


    "I am Antieeld, one of the twelve recognised talent holders of this generation, where are you headed for?" she presented herself, by this point, both the carriage and Loimos had stopped.


    There were no downsides to speaking the truth.


    "Findpasser" he simply spoke, using the same trick as before, forming convincing vocal cords and all that was needed for a living to speak.


    This made him sound like an old man with poor lungs, but he at least didn''t inscribe the inevitability of death in the hearts of those listening.


    "Hum" rubbing her chin, Antieeld threw him a piece of metal, some sort of emblem.


    "You shoulde by Toordefer Academy, it''s in the capital, Wanneckssa and ask for me, I''ll be there for a while, the next five years at least" she bid him farewell just like that, not exining the why or anything else.


    However, Loimos did not bother with the antics of some living and just moved onto his way, though, he was aware that it was a rather big boon, to have ess to the capital, he didn''t know what this academy was about, but judging by Antieeld and her personal bodyguard, it ought to be a rather important ce.

 Chapter 88: Short Halt

    Today, the leaves were burdened by an additional weight, the surroundings were calmer than usual, the birds seemed to be flying higher above the canopy, not stopping to catch any insects or to take a rest, the ambient life in the air was less as the forest animals had cleared off the area.


    Tinged ever so much by death, Loimos didn''t recognise it as the usual amount an undead would leave in its wake, the lives taken here were for the growth of another living, touching and decaying the blood upon a nearby leaf, he could tell that it was human.


    Everything was already dried by the enormous heat of the conjoined suns, but it was obvious that everything was recent, Loimos had slightly diverged from his path because he had sensed a spike in death in the woods of to his right, only to discover once he got there that it was not the work of a fellow.


    The undead''s bone ws hadn''t recovered yet, the creation of bone was still a long process for him, the ws were the implement he had put in ce in his right arm, a useful tool that had already proven their lethality, but he had something else in stock in his other arm.


    He followed the trail of blood, approaching an area where death was strongest, stumbling upon what little remained of a person, rotting everything away, he then went the opposite way, where the body had been dragged from, arriving into an orchard filled to the brim with cherry trees, the fruits ripe for the taking and bursting with juice.


    When decaying something away, Loimos got a clear idea of the target and its condition, which allowed him to more easily use his rot and mould it to the desired form, it worked best with bodily structures at the moment.


    This had allowed him to get a good idea of what sort of teeth the predator that had feasted on that first victim possessed, so seeing said creature in person only confirmed what he had already supposed, beyond the orchard, epassed within it in fact were a set of a few houses, a smallmunity that most certainly lived off of thend and didn''t sharemunications with any city or the likes.


    Loimos had walked for a few days since thest notable event, so it was no question why they weren''t bothered by bandits here, they were much too far, perhaps enough that the two parties hadn''t even been aware of the other.


    The doors were busted down, weakened by the brutal strikes of a sword and by relentless mming, it was doubtful that every single one of those doors had been locked when the predator came, it seemed more like the concept of doors was offensive to the man currently on his knees, deep in gore and fresh blood as he gorged upon the remains of inhabitants.


    He didn''t notice Loimos walking over to him until only ten meters separated the two of them, fumbling over and slipping around in the guts he was previously slurping like they were a savorous meal, he growled at the undead, trying to stand up on his two legs but seemingly unwillingly returning to the posture of a wild beast.


    It looked like it was no more than a cannibal, not even a wild one, he was wearing clothes that fitted him, they looked rathervish too, unlike that of a lowly subject, the sword he began iling around was chipped and bent from severely abusing it but still retained details indicating a craftsmanship of higher standing.


    "What the- Who?" his speech was somewhat slurred, confused, his face and teeth tainted red, he appeared deeply shocked by the sight of Loimos.


    Loimos thought about the fact that this guy seemed to have the qualifications to make a good ghoul, unfortunately, the skeleton didn''t know how to purposefully turn someone into an undead, so he would just kill him.


    The man looked down at his meal, and puked, vomited with such abject disgust that some bits came out of his nose, tears streamed from his eyes, making a clean path through the drying blood covering his skin.


    "Ah¡­ Ah! You got to help me! I didn''t mean to!" loosening his arms, he let his sword hang low, trying his best to exin himself, Loimos didn''t move a millimeter.


    Perhaps this time, a living would have something interesting to say.


    "It''s- It''s those bitches from Aliz¨¦, I tried to just go back on a deal when I discovered what they were actually doing, they- I was stung by something and I can''t stop myself, where even is this? Where the hell am I?!" he was getting a bit agitated, his breathing waspletely out of line, the cannibal might just copse dead on his own.


    He grabbed his head and stared down, losing the strength in his legs, not paying attention to Loimos for a few moments.


    "Wait, are you one of them?


    Did youe to-" he rose his head only to find the undead looming over him, the way the man was positioned allowed Loimos to step right on his arm holding the sword, snapping it like celery stick, grabbing his head with both hands, Loimos rose him off the ground and spoke with the pale tongue, the dreadfully cold voice of death washing over the man, reminding him that there was something worse than his current situation.


    "Exin, who is Aliz¨¦?" he asked, neither calm nor inclement, the cannibal felt his agitation crumbling into thin air, as though the madness that had possessed him was scared away, the pale tendrils of insanity retreating in the face of death.


    Exactly one hourte, nothing remained of the orchard or of the few habitations, everything consumed by unceasing rot.


    Loimos moved back onto the path he had been previously walking, returning to his previous upation seamlessly.


    The next few weeks of constant walking weren''t met with any other perturbations to his travel, at least, until he arrived before Findpasser and had to go through the gate.

 Chapter 89: Do Not Be Afraid

    "Oh, a shipment of steel from that dungeon? Have the adventurers finally begun to do their job again?" a guard standing in the open gate to the city spoke as he wrote down a few things on some paper.


    "Not quite, I just had some reserves, you know, just in case, heheh" the merchantughed a bit, making the guard shake his head, motioning for him to move in.


    The line of people waiting to get in was rather lengthy, be it people on foot, on horses or with carriages, they all had to go through the checkpoint and the guards there, though, mostly only the carriages were checked extensively, and that was only really for those driven by faces they didn''t recognise.


    After being on this post for so many years, the man standing at the front knew many merchants, he would just exchange a few words with them and let them through without verifications, today was just another day for him.


    "By the way, there is a weird guy in a mask prowling around-" the merchant warned him as he went by., but the guard just waved his hand dismissively.


    "I know, everyone has already told me about him, I saw him in the distance too, don''t worry" he found himself yawning, the man was quite surprised actually, everyone seemed to think that this random guy was suspicious and should be mentioned, it wasn''t his first time having weirdos roaming.


    The next person in line was on foot, wearing a big cloak with the hood on, raising an eyebrow, the guard spoke first.


    "Aren''t you warm in that?" the twin suns were hitting hard, it was noon too, it was like standing in a sauna, the guard was keeping it together well from experience, but he felt like he was a rotisserie chicken inside of his armour.


    "Armond! We need to talk '''' raising his hood up a slight bit, the cloaked man revealed his face, Armond''s face scrunched up reflexively.


    "Miqi?! What the hell are you-" he coughed a bit and turned back to some others guards in the distance "someone take my spot real quick, I need to set something clear with this fellow here"


    Grabbing Miqi by the shoulder he pulled him a distance away from everyone else as a young guard walked up and began doing the check-ups, which was of course much slower since this youngster didn''t know the regrs like Armond did.


    "Exin, what are you doing here?" the experienced guard turned his back to the crowd, his face pale with worry.


    Knowing that actions spoke louder than words, Miqi showed Armond his right hand, or rather, theck thereof of his limb, grimacing he didn''t let him get surprised and ask.


    "I am doing you a favour by telling you, take your wife and kids, get the hell away, go to another country, those bitches from Aliz¨¦ are going fucking mental, the money isn''t worth getting pieced up!" Miqi''s wrist and bandaged and still bloody, clearly, he had gotten this gruesome injury recently.


    "You probably heard of what they have been up to with their newest drug as well, it isn''t as simple as some aphrodisiacs and hallucinogens sold on the street anymore, they''re building up troops, we can get tortured and killed for that sort of thing!" failing his stump madly, he still did his best to keep his voice as low as possible, throwing nces at the waiting line behind him.


    "Alright, I understand that part, and I agree, but what happened to your hand? Surely, had they gotten word of your intention to leave everything, they would have done more than this, unless-!" Miqi quickly stopped him right in his tracks.


    "They don''t know that I am betraying them, and I am not ratting you out either!


    Listen, not only are those four making moves that ssify as high treason, they are justpletely insane to begin with, whatever number she goes by, the vampire chick just walked up to me and cut off my hand for no reason, I could put up with the crazed antics before, but now that I know what they are really after, I am not getting close to any of them, they are madwomen!" Miqi stepped away, pointing his stump at Armond.


    "Hold a second Miqi, shouldn''t we report them? The king would be willing to forgive us if we spoke up about a conspiracy or whatever it is that they are brewing!" he tried to reason but Miqi was already moving away, running off toward the woods in fact.


    Keeping his cool, Armond returned to his post like nothing happened and resumed work, watching as the figure of his friend disappeared amongst the trees.


    Unaware that as soon as he was out of sight of everyone, Loimos osted him, grabbing him by the wrist that still led to a hand.


    Miqi had been too focused on what was in front of him to notice the undead intercepting him, speaking with his imitation of a voice, Loimos squeezed enough to make it hurt whilst simultaneously reassuring the living.


    "I could not help but notice you mentioned Aliz¨¦, and that one of them was a vampire, borate"


    "H-How the hell could you hear that? Are you one of their goons?" Miqi didn''t dare to yell, he knew all too well what would happen if he raised his voice.


    "Do not be afraid, do you not recognise this mask? I am a death hunter, I simply want to know more about this group housing a vampire, I only want the good of lifekind" speaking unnaturally clearly and deliberately, Miqi was getting more and more put off the more Loimos spoke.


    "You- So you will let me go if I tell you everything?" he asked carefully, feeling himself sweating even more than when he was right under the light of the suns.


    "You can trust me on this"


    Catching his breath, the man with a missing hand couldn''t help but notice the fact that the ''death hunter'' wasn''t letting go of his wrist in the least, in fact, it was quite worrying how perfectly stable the strength of his grip was, actually, the man hadn''t moved at all since he had grabbed onto him, still like a statue, knowing that his current position was perfect and didn''t allow Miqi to do anything.


    "A-Alright, I, hum, I have met with all four of the leaders at least once¡­"

 Chapter 90: One, Two, Three And Four

    Miqi could still hear the distant chatter of the people waiting in line to enter Findpasser, but he focused on the situation at end, the more he paid attention to details of the man holding him in ce, the colder he felt, so he looked away from the minuscule, hollow ''eyes'' of the worn-out mask.


    "They, they all go by numbers, one to four, I have no clue what their real names are alright? I am fairly certain some of them are from outside Tamaris however¡­" he swallowed his saliva, silence was the only answer he would get from the supposed death hunter.


    "Four is probably the most recognisable, she is a tall woman with wide shoulders, she is always wearing some huge, leather coat, it''s so long you can barely even see her feet, but you would really know it''s her by getting a look at her face" he made the mistake of looking back at Loimos, he was much more afraid of the undead than Aliz¨¦ at the moment.


    "She has purple hair, red insect eyes, her skin is awfully pale and weird-looking, like a doll''s, yes, a doll! And also, she is always shing an awful smile with way too many, small pointy teeth, freaky I tell you!" Miqi tried to get any sort of response from Loimos, but he didn''t react in the least.


    Taking it as a threat and a demand to keep going, the manplied with the imagined order, his face drenched his sweat by now, even a blind person would be able to tell he was a nervous wreck thanks to the smell and heavy breathing.


    "Three then¡­ Three is probably from Tochi, she carries a sword that is typical from there, only that the de is a bright green for some reason, do you know what a katana or whatever the name is?


    It''s one of those des with only one sharp edge, but not quite as curved as those from Pezerx¡­" Miqi did his best to exin with his own words, theck of anything from the skeleton was really driving him crazy, he felt every single thing he said was wrong.


    "T-Two, speaking of Pezerx she is probably from there, she has darker skin than people here, and she is always dressed with those ample, desert clothing things, I have personally never met anyone like her in my entire life of travelling, but just in case¡­ She has a huge scar running on the side of her face, she is even missing an ear"


    "And then there is One!" feeling like he was slowly making Loimos inclined on murdering him, he quickly moved on to thest member, details about the others onlying into his mind as he arrived there.


    ''Should I mention them?'' this question ran through his mind, but he ignored it, he was just going to finish things as rapidly as possible.


    "She is the vampire woman, she dresses in ck armour with a red pattern on the chestte, but leaves her neck and headpletely unprotected for some reason, apart from that, she has the distinctive red eyes and fangs any vampire has!" Miqi tried to conclude, but Loimos had grabbed him with the intention of learning about this vampire, apart from Faraday and Slotriig, he had yet to encounter undeads that he could converse with and that possessed their own reasonings and powers.


    Loimos doubted that even if he found the king''s crypt, that he would be able to waltz in and break the seal so easily, he was nning on this not being possible and was thus, trying to prepare by gathering intel on possible allies.


    The cannibal from earlier had spoken of Aliz¨¦, so Loimos already knew much about the organisation, the substance they were using to turn that random guy into a maddened devourer of his own kind seemed like a good addition to the arms of the undead legion.


    "Whose vampire lord is she rted to?" he asked, of the eight gravelords, five were vampires, Faraday had told him much about all of this, the diversity in vampires depended on who was their lord.


    Miqi paused for a moment, he wasn''t the most knowledgeable on the subject, and fearing saying something wrong, he took his time to think this through, even though the answer was in obvious.


    It was just that the gravelords in general weren''tmon knowledge nowadays, but he understood what Loimos meant.


    "She''s a sun-walking vampire" there was only one type of blood-drinker capable of moving under the light of the sun, even in the modern days, when undead threats were much lessmon than before, the vampires of Sun-Walker remained rather famous.


    "My thanks" Loimos actually let go of Miqi''s wrist, stunning even the living for a second, not actually have been expecting to be released so quickly, he didn''t even get time to look back at Loimos before the undead grabbed him by the face, pinning his head against a tree before dousing him at point nk with blighted blood, turning his head into mush.


    It went without saying that the living had nothing else of substance to say, he would have spilled the beans already, and anything else of importance wouldn''t simply be known by this rat tag man.


    Once more perfectly erasing any evidence of the death, Loimos walked back toward the road, but not toward the people lined up, instead he went the opposite way.


    __________


    Armond continued on doing his job for the rest of the day, letting people in and asionally searching some people, but he really was focused on what Miqi had told him, should he run away or should he not?


    Should he risk attracting the wrath of Aliz¨¦? Perhaps he could simplyy down and keep on working for them, after all, Miqi could be wrong about their intentions.


    "Oh well, the mayor made an order of mana crystal? Hurry on in then" seeing that the wax seal was legitimate, he let the well-guarded caravan in.


    "Fifteen barrels of salt? That''s less than usual¡­" remarked Armond, letting the familiar face in anyways.


    "The biggest salt mine haspletely copsed on itself, expect less for at least the next few months, they''ve been saying that it wasn''t an ident, get from that what you will!" the man moved in after speaking his piece, without going through any sort of search.

 Chapter 91: Good Business

    "You''rete" a man whose belly couldn''t possibly expand any further without rupturing spoke with a face reddened by the ambient warmth, the heat of the two suns was even worse inside of the city, much less cold breezes to rescue you and a density of people and building trapping the hot, umting it.


    "Sorry, a freaking tree had fallen in the way, and no one to help me, I had to get a change of clothes afterward, looked like I had went for a swim, but hey, fifteen whole barrels of salt, with the stop in production, this is a lot" the man spread his arms and tilted his head to side a bit.


    The well-fed man shook his head, beads of sweat emerging from his forehead, trickling down his chin and neck.


    "Here, that''s double the usual, now help me unload" he threw a pouch of coins, rolling his eyes as he climbed up onto the carriage, the two of them carefully unloaded each of the barrels on stable ground.


    Putting them in line, they were both drenched in sweat by now and chugging down on some lukewarm water, the buyer moved up to the first barrel they had unloaded, tapping on the cover.


    "Is there a problem with this one?" the coachman moved up to the merchandise as well, musing over the fact that despite the two of them being inside a room with no windows, it was still impossibly hot.


    "I thought that it was heavier than the others, and look, it was already unsealed" he pushed up against the cover, it was clearly moving from the slight interaction, the other man pushed his hair back and didn''t hesitate to just open the barrel, wanting to see whether or not the salt had been damaged.


    The bigger man had been imagining that an animal had snuck inside and reflexively backed off, nothing happened and the first man ran his hands through the salt, moving it around and checking.


    "False alert, the salt is pristine! Must havee off when we were unloading them" rationalising, the coachman put the lid back on and stepped away, taking another swing of water before stepping outside, pushing open a door without any handle or locks to get back to his carriage.


    His horses were busy resting under the shade of a building and drinking from a small watering though, they had been busy unloading and taking breaks for a while now, the outside had turned dark, and was only getting darker, despite this, the salt provider was intending on driving his carriage back home.


    He bid his goodbyes, not lingering any long than he was supposed to, leaving the well-bellied man by himself, he remained outside for a while longer, the arrival of the night had made the outside fresher than the inside, he took multiple minutes breathing in and out, the sweat in his body drying away, leaving him feeling less filthy and ready to start working again.


    He went right back in, the flimsy wooden door swinging back and forth behind him as his attention naturally turned to histest purchase, he had paid double the usual for less salt but it was no problem, he had gotten wind of copses in the main salt mine before most and gotten the coachman to bring them immediately, he was nning on selling it at a much higher price than normal.


    He rubbed his hands together, imagining the fine prospect this would bring to him, he might even be promoted from lowly merchant to a bourgeois, he could buy a plot ofnd and start doing some agriculture, and from there, he would be able to passively build ie.


    His imagination was far from reality but he allowed himself to have hopes and dreams.


    In his daze, he didn''t notice something and kicked a piece of woodying on the floor, with pain surging from his toes and looked down at what he had just mercilessly struck.


    The room was illuminated by a brightntern, he quickly recognised the object, he almost ignored it but quickly realised that something was terribly off about its presence on the ground.


    He turned to the barrels, discovering the same one from earlier had once again lost its cover.


    "He put it back on, didn''t he?" he muttered to himself, having difficulties trusting his own memory for a moment, he clearly remembered the lid having been put back on just a little while back, but it was on the ground now, so surely he was mistaken.


    Stepping up to the barrel, the inside wasn''t well lit since his shadow was obstructing the light, but it looked just fine, half-heartedly, he ran his hand through the salt, expecting some sort of animal to bite his fingers.


    ''Ah, I must be going crazy¡­'' he honestly didn''t know why he had gotten so scared all of a sudden, the cover of the barrel hade off, what of it?


    One couldn''t just start panicking over every incongruity they encountered, it just wasn''t healthy and a waste of time.


    Just as he wasughing at himself for being such a scaredy cat, he saw a second shadow merge with his.


    He tried to question the foreign shadow but he failed to form any coherent words as he flipped around, barely catching a glimpse of the intruder, their hand already grasping thentern hanging from the ceiling, with a crunch, all light disappeared from the room.


    Raising his arms defensively, the big man backed off until he hit a wall, then moving to where he knew a corner would be, he felt more safe knowing that nothing could slither behind his back.


    He tried to make himself as quiet as possible, hoping that his assant had lost track of him in the darkness.


    The living''s hopes were all but insignificant.


    Remaining perfectly still, slowly feeling the strength of his legs being sapped away, sliding down to the floor as he heard nothing but the sound of his ragged breathing and beating heart.


    Until it spoke to him, a voice from outer-tomb, so cold and unfeeling.


    He shuddered.

 Chapter 92: The Dead That Live

    After finishing his business, Loimos stepped outside into the night, the moonless sky provided the perfect environment for an undead such as himself, he walked through the deserted streets, the lull of the night only disturbed by distant howls and shouts, passing by a few ces with light slipping to the outside, Loimos noticed how different Findpasser was to Throdqdmond.


    It had no habitations outside of the walls, the ce seemed to have been built with the express intent of one day bing a booming city as well, rather than a settlement growing overtime, it was clear that everything had beenid out to be of this size.


    No narrow back alleys, no scent of death hanging in the air, clearly the ce was maintained much cleaner and wasn''t ridden with murderous criminals, passing by a building titled adventurer guild, a stalwart stone structure, then by what seemed to be barracks for guards.


    Many businesses dealing with potioncraft, enchantments and other magical affairs, as well as more regr things, such as cksmiths and leatherworkers, for now, Loimos didn''t bother with them, simply acknowledging their locations, he was walking straight for the supposed crypt housed within the city, it was most definitely not a fluke, the undead could clearly sense a good amount of death force.


    It seemedcking to be his majesty, but all that mattered was that an undead did seem to be dwelling inside, Loimos climbed over a fence that couldn''t keep anyone meaning to get inside from doing so and approached an enormous chasm in the ground, the so-called crypt was more an enormous hole.


    The width of it spanned around ten meters, a rough staircase could still be made out on the side, spinning around the edges of the pit, though some parts had clearly copsed and even what was left didn''t appear very friendly to anything that didn''t weigh as much as a feather.


    Moving away from the hole, Loimos headed for a section of the fence that looked like a gate, having noticed that there was a lengthy sign erected right next to it, reading it, the skeleton was made aware of what the general poption knew of this.


    To the living, this ce was only rumoured to be the resting ce of an undead, although, with the clear death force emanating all the way to the top, even if they weren''t as sensible to it as Loimos, the death hunters should definitely know that it was a fact, yet, they hadn''t dealt with it already.


    Secondly, every year, at the end of summer, a torrent of wolf-sized, bat-like monsters were set toe spewing out, it was rmended to lock yourself at home for the day whilst adventurers and such were clearing out those that remained in the city rather than immediately flying off into the distance.


    Loimos reached into one of his pockets, having to dig through salt, after immersing himselfpletely into one of the barrels, every single ce that could hold any amount of salt was currently filled to the brim with it.


    He fished out a badly dposed hand, took off what was on his left hand and ripped it off, letting fall to the ground, his bony limb remaining mobile, using the extra hand he had kept on himself to quickly regain the use of his lost limb, he then enveloped the self-sustaining appendage in a thick ball of rot and blood, throwing it straight into the hole before stepping away.


    With a st, the mass of rot impacted on the ground soon after, allowing for Loimos''s hand, which was just as aware as he himself was, the undead was pretty much piloting himself and his limb at the same time, a task of no difficulty when everything about him was undead and benefited from the full advantages.


    Like a spider from the bottom of nightmares, the hand strolled along the ground, tip tapping as it headed for the source of the death force, ignoring the slumbering bat monsters, moving into a partly copse passage, every surfaces soon changed, or rather, they received a new addition, the typical grey of the stone and protruding crystals had all been utterly covered by undead locusts, all seemingly frozen in ce.


    Hidden away at the very end of it all, a singr corpse cradling its own disembodied head, on its knees and wearing robes whose original colours couldn''t even be guessed at this point, the head alone moved a bit as Loimos crawled closer.


    The corpse wasn''t skeletal or dried out, it was still muchposed of flesh, festering with the same locusts as before, Loimos had been told much about the closest members of the undead court, the gravelords, the king himself, the advisors, which Faraday was a part of and the royal guards.


    Amidst the advisors, there was one thatcked muchbat proficiency, a seer whose locusts could be used to predict sites where tremendous amounts of death would soon ur.


    "Irmandos" somehow speaking with the death tongue as nothing but a hand, Loimos called out to the seer.


    A bright spear-like rock was stabbed right through his arm and chest, the head shuffled around, using its hair to position itself upright.


    "That is indeed my name" he spoke in a strangely jolly tone, his decapitated head jumping up.


    "I am sorry, but I can not be of much help any longer, this spear was stabbed into me by a death hunter, trying to remove it will result in my total erasure for certain, I know because I can see the future, a bit"


    "Though, I can''t do any divinations with that thing in me, maybe fate has changed its course from what Ist saw a few millenniums ago, you must be looking to unseal his majesty Nitok, as all undead should be" Irmandos chuckled, opening and closing his jaw mechanically,cking any sort of lips or tongue, he didn''t even have any teeth.


    "I am afraid I won''t be of much use, the topography is doomed to have greatly changed since the war, but I can tell you about one thing for certain, Sun-Walker is a traitor"


    Faraday had been sealed before anyone else, yet, he too had been putting suspicions on Sun-Walker, thest gravelord to have joined their rank.


    "We undeads suffer from a problem, traitors within us, undeads who live in death"

 Chapter 93: No Failures

    "There has always been an unfortunate issue with many of the undeads that remembered their past lives, many couldn''t leave behind life! They were tainting death and all thates with it by taking it for a second life, simply outrageous! Malevolent! True evil!


    But under the rule of King Nitok, there was nothing they could do to challenge us" the spear embedded in his chest cracked, making some of the rotten flesh infested by the locust fall off, turning into goo before fully disappearing.


    Clearly, making any sort of movement or action was agitating the solid mass of life stuck in the zombified seer, he hadn''t moved at all from this spot for this very reason, but he knew very well that the spear couldn''t be removed at this point, he had already been forced to crawl all the way down here, with how much the life had already prated, all he could do was share his meagre knowledge, which he couldn''t even be sure was relevant any longer.


    "First, the Elven Light appeared, her abilities were a direct counter to both the vampires and our king himself, at around the same time, it became clear that Sun-Walker was never a true undead, he had only showed up out of nowhere, it didn''t take long before he began taking actions" the flesh on his head melted nearlypletely off, slipping through Irmandos''s fingers.


    The locusts spread their wings, buzzing filling the crooked space as the seer went into details about Sun-Walker''s treachery, he conspired with the elven heroin, allowing her to face Nitok on a one-on-one, a battle where the undead king was at a disadvantage, but somehow, even when faced off against a natural enemy of power rivalling his own, Nitok was simply not going down.


    Since prolonging a confrontation for too long could mean the arrival of the royal guards and gravelords, who Sun-Walker was supposed to preupy, Maiele Liameilos was forced to abandon the idea of total annihtion and sealed off the king of the dead.


    With his fall, those who lived in death scuttered away and despite being able to fight still, the gravelords all fell back and went into hiding, Irmandos was slowly getting more and more incoherent, unlike Loimos, which both soul and mind alike were considered dead, Irmandos only had regr ones, who were neither alive or dead.


    The life seeping into him was altering his speech and thoughts, it was doubtful whether what he was saying was perfectly in line with what he had truly meant to tell, his lower jaw detached but he kept on speaking.


    "The gravelords believe wholeheartedly that only with Nitok leading the dead can they triumph over life, they have retreated for I have predicted that it was the best course of action, that Nitok would naturally break off of the seal, fret not my fellow, time is on our side" he wentpletely silent for a few seconds, his body copsing upon itself.


    Loimos manifested some rot, preparing to decay what remained of Irmandos and absorb the ambient death force as Faraday had advised him to for he believed Loimos had the capabilities to aplish such a feat.


    "Vwoldtnir! Deep Crawler!" the zombie shouted, not even addressing Loimos any longer, it was quite unbefitting of an undead.


    "Drac, Son Of Dragon" after the outburst, his voice went down.


    He recited the name and titles of each of the gravelords, as though he was announcing their arrival in a throne room.


    "Vespertillo, The Night Flier"


    "Nosferatu, Of The Foetid Blood"


    Loimos had already heard much about the gravelords from Faraday, but the steel skeleton hadn''t bothered to mention their titles, he waited for the seer to finish.


    "K?rpersucher, Mind Scourge"


    "Multaemanus, The Unceasing"


    "Atsalinopalo, The Shattered"


    He paused, his melted body writhing as the spear of life threatened to break into pieces any seconds from now, his head falling to the ground, smashing against the ground like a rotten watermelon.


    "Sun-Walker, The Curse Breaker"


    He ceased and with this, Loimos enveloped him, and the locust with rot, pulling the remaining death to him as the spear shattered, driedpletely of life in the process of extinguishing Irmandos.


    As he had stated himself, there was nothing to do, so there were no failures here, only sess on Loimos''s part, it was just a shame that an undead that had been so close to the undead king had to be destroyed like this, that life spear had been some effective work as well, the skeleton could feel that, had he attempted to get rid of it which his usual methods, that it would have just detonated on the spot, the life within was rather vtile.


    The hand moved out of the thin passageway and into the chasm, the rot created from all of this followed closely behind him, he dug into the ground with acidic blood, stuffing all of this rot away from prying eyes.


    The bat monsters showed no reaction, still deep in their slumber as a bony hand moved along the ground before joining up with the rest of the rot, Loimos converting his own limb into more rot, this little underground operation he was doing was a little surprise that woulde in at ater date.


    With the knowledge that Sun-Walker, an undead chosen by death to be a gravelord, was a traitor, he had to be more mindful of that sun-walking vampire from Aliz¨¦, which was why, Loimos had been walking around the surface all of this time, searching for a certain life force signature.


    The one of the guard that he had spotted working at the gate, he had heard their entire discussion and thus knew that Armond was affiliated with Aliz¨¦, with Miqi, who by all ounts had been in charge of contacting the decision makers of that group, taken out of the picture, it shouldn''t be out of the realm of possibilities that they woulde and ask Armond about it eventually.


    As a guard working at the entrance and seemingly solely in charge of deciding who got in or not, Loimos reasoned that he was the one permitting entry of whatever substances Aliz¨¦ was making, he was rather important all in all.


    As a cadaver, Loimos had time to spare, he just needed to make sure Armond wouldn''t try to slip away from the city, so once he found out where he lived by tracking his life force, he simply walked up to his front door and knocked.

 Chapter 94: Deceit

    I believe I have already made myself clear about this subject in the past, but many of my kind contemporaries seem to entertain the belief that criticising a colleague''s work without any knowledge or substance, not even an ounce of understanding of the topic even.


    It is truly a bizarre thing, we all gather inside of this secret tower to speak of matters rting to our good friends, the undead, and yet, we have failed to shine a light on the fact that many amongst us are dead of mind!


    In any case, there is no point to the name calling, no matter how entertaining or true the activity may be.


    It seems a discourse has arisen on the subject of undead synesthesia, it used to be widely agreed that the purer an undead was, the more their senses merged with one another, hearing through sight, seeing through smells et cetera and et cetera, I shouldn''t have to repeat myself on the basic concept, I hope.


    A great portion of the misunderstanding of the theory of the perfect synesthesia for a perfect undead lies in the extra senses, I''ll admit, I believed that I had also made this clear, but allow me to borate once more.


    Let us first admit that our perfect undead is based on the corpse of some lizard, and has thus ess to some vision of heat, yes, through that particr sense, the synesthesia still applies, just as it applies through the dead one''s ability to detect life, death, mana or any other energy.


    Perfect means perfect, we are not dealing in approximate, the theoretical undead we are speaking off is simply a beast of perception, all that it needs is a good range for its senses and the capabilities to react to what it can perceive to be a true beast.


    If you only skimmed through my writings, here is the simplified version, the perfect undead is simply built differently.


    -Ohith Of The Underground Tower, ''A Brief Reminder''


    Armond opened up the door after five whole minutes, time during which Loimos kept on banging on the door at the same exact rhythm, it would be an understatement that the guard was mad, he was fuming, awaken wholly by what he believed to be the tomfoolery of a group of child up much past their bedtime.


    Not expecting to be met with a tall figure garbed in ck and wearing a filthy mask, he didn''t even register Loimos for a second, Armond had no other choice but acknowledge the undead however, the skeleton punched him in the guts without any precursory signs.


    Naturally leaning forward and holding onto his stomach, Loimos had all the time in the world to firmly grab him by the top of his head, pulling him outside for a moment.


    "Armond, Miqi has died and we at Aliz¨¦ are much aware of what he thought of our operations, you two were rather close, try following his footsteps, I will tear you limb from limb, attempt to report anything, I will gut your wife and strangle your children before your eyes, show anything indicating that you are under threat, and I will show you that all of the previous options are alluring inparison" grabbing one of his ears between his index and thumb, he pulled just enough for it to hurt.


    "Do not answer, I know that you understood" pushed him back inside, the undead closed the door himself and walked off in the same way he came, very nonchntly, his ways of trying to not appear too undead-like with his movements and behaviour ended up making him look like a very unbothered, but ssy mad hobo.


    This fact was something he for once didn''t realise.


    It went without saying that he wouldn''t be leaving the guard unsupervised, the livings could prove rather unpredictable in their actions, he knew this all too well.


    Tucking himself away in a dark corner, a good distance away from Armond''s dwelling, he spent his time circting his death force as well as doing the exercises Faraday had passed on to him, there was also the fighting style he had been taught, he had called it a portion of a style actually, but that wasn''t very urate, the metal skeleton simply believed, perhaps too much, that Loimos could incorporate the various ways of fighting of all of the gravelords.


    It was true that Loimos could probably replicate most of the blood powers of the vampires with more control of his rot, but for some other, he hadn''t been told what he could possibly be taught aboutbat by ghosts.


    Time went on as it was supposed to, and the rtively cool night soon turned to a gruelling hot day, the twin suns showed their ugly maws once more, quickly eating up the streets and producing a blinding light for those that made the mistake of raising their eyes.


    Loimos stood his ground, his arms crossed and looking down, despite looking absolutely suspicious beyond end, no one was really feeling like bothering with his existence, people were filling up the streets, all headed in various direction, the skin already glistening and the air filling up with the distinct smell of sweat.


    It would be a good idea for the undead to learn how to replicate this smell, at the moment, he was suppressing the vile odours he was supposed to unleash upon his surroundings, only his clothes carried a vague smell of dust, he mostly reeked of salt though.


    Soon, Armond went past him as well, they locked eye contact for a moment, the living couldn''t maintain it, it would appear that the undead''s impression of a threat had been on point, he followed the guard around the whole day and couldn''t catch any sign of him being nefarious.


    Apart from him allowing carriages containing drugs of course, Armond must have mentioned him to the carriers, they all motioned to him and one even spoke a bit, Loimos had inserted himself into this organisation the night just before and none seemed to be able to find fault with it.


    They were either a much bigger group than the undead had expected, or those guys were wholly ignorant, maybe simply idiots.


    The guys in charge of getting the drugs inside of the city were deemed to not have been granted much information anyways, they were the most likely to be caught and interrogated after all.


    His short conversation with the talkative one was rather fruitful however, he had learned that they weren''t members of Aliz¨¦ per se, they were employed by them but were really part of some sort of gang inside the city, a ckmarket of sorts, Armond had been working with them from the start as well.


    Aliz¨¦ had set nothing up, simply hijacking the current criminal affairs for themselves.

 Chapter 95: One

    "You''ve been looking an awful lot paler than usualtely Armond, what''s the matter?" another man, keeping a stall for some apples, sitting down on a stool and looking terribly out of shape, with his clouded eyes, the simple fact that he was noticing something about the guard was a cause for worry.


    "Just a little sick is all, I must have eaten something that wasn''t fresh!" he brushed off the question and quickly spun on his heels to leave, somehow, his gazended straight on the true reason of hisplexion, just leaning up against a wall and staring straight at him, by this point, it felt like there wasn''t a single spot on his skull that had been intensely watched by his stalker.


    He wasn''t just worried on the premise that Loimos was dering himself of Aliz¨¦, but that it didn''t make sense in the least, he had disguised it as jokes and off-handed remarks when mentioned him to the drug carriers, but those fools couldn''t see what was so off about this random guy.


    He had heard much from Miqi, and now knowing what theirtest drug was designed to do, it was apparent that apart from the four maniacs Miqi would sometime meet with to report to, no members of Aliz¨¦ were willing, he had seen one of those before, anyone that had worked with them had at least seen one of their freaks.


    Livid men and women, their eyes haggard, staring directly ahead at absolutely nothing, feeling seemingly no pain and barely capable of realising their own deaths when it befell them, Aliz¨¦ was full of nothing but thralls that could do nothing more than follow orders until they died, they wouldn''t and couldn''t do anything they hadn''t been explicitly told about by their bosses.


    But this guy that hade to threaten him was much too coherent, he was off in his own way for certain, but Armond couldn''t put his fingers on what it was that made his masked stalker so precisely weird, even after two entire weeks of having to endure his forcedpany.


    This weirdo could sometimes be found peeking through his windows, peeking was a rather light word to use, he wasn''t hiding himself, he just walked up and looked inside without any hesitation, Armond would even sometimes find him sitting in a corner of his bedroom.


    ''How is that even possible? Where does that chair he sits on evene from?!'' it was terrifying to know that someone could just go in and out of your home as they pleased, but the fact that he was even bringing his own furniture inside was simply horrifying in its own right.


    The inside of his home was also looking a lot more mouldy and decrepit than it used to as well, Loimos was a veritable disease upon his surroundings, his prolonged presence made things spontaneously want to putrefy.


    But eventually, and Armond couldn''t believe that he was considering this a good thing, one of the four finally decided to show up, wanting to discuss a few things since Miqi had vanished, he had been in charge of reporting pretty much everything rting their trade in Findpasser as well as the surroundings.


    With him gone, it seemed like Armond would have to fill in for a little while, but despite being relieved, for that event should signify that Loimos would stop staring at him every single hour of both the day and night.


    But the intermediary that hade to fetch him had only mentioned Miqi going missing, he doubted Aliz¨¦ would hide it had they butchered him like a pig, especially when the one keeping watch over him hadn''t hesitated to pronounce him dead, it was fishy.


    Armond knew that something shady was going on, but clearly, Loimos knew what the guard was thinking, sneaking out of the city to reach the point of rendez-vous, a night of a full moon, Loimos was pretty much dragging the poor man by the back of his neck.


    "Armond, how many of the four would Miqi usually meet up with?" questioned Loimos, his false voicecking much of the intonation generally associated with interrogation.


    "Only one?" not quite certain why he was asking this now, Armond kept eyeing his surroundings, he was not feeling this.


    Loimos couldn''t tell for certain with his ability to sense life force, it wasn''t advanced enough to detect someone rtively skilled trying to conceal their presence, he was able to suspect more than one person simply due to the physical clues left in the air, their scents hanging in the air wasn''t hidden alongside them.


    Although, it was obvious that One was part of the show, not only was his death force sense more proficient, she wasn''t hiding in the least, which was strange, as a sun-walking vampire, she was actually weaker during the night, maybe not as much as usual since it was a full moon but still, that wasn''t the best tactic when you were part of an illegal organisation manufacturing mindless soldiers.


    Loimos tightened his grip on the living, silencing him as he didn''t simply pull him along and truly began dragging him, heading straight toward the vampire.


    The skeleton was understandably more on guard than he would usually be since the vampire one was descended from was a betrayer, but he wouldn''t hold this against her, he didn''t hold anything against anyone.


    He first had to determine whether she was of those that live in death or an actualpatriot, surely, they could still find apromise even then, or he could just demonstrate her was true death feels like.


    The putrid undead was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, the ball was already in her camp before they even met.


    Him and an Armond shifting in colours made it to a minuscule clearing, a nicely carved table was sitting in the center of it all, the wind was quiet and the night was refreshing, standing opposite to that table was definitely the one calling herself One.


    A rtively, garbed in the dark suit of armour Miqi had described, it was indeed finely crafted, apart from everything above her shoulders, it was all well protected, although full of small parts clicked together, it didn''t seem shoddy in the least.


    The red pattern the living hadn''t been able to decipher was a rune pulled straight from the death tongue, which aptly signified the number one, that was a good sign, she knew the death tongue.


    Bright blonde hair going down to her shoulders, red eyes full of curiosity and a fanged smile at the sight of Loimos throwing Armond like rubbish to the ground, she was definitely rather attractive by human standards, Loimos himself had no such standards, so he had to make do with the opinion of some livings.


    "Will you assist me in liberating Nitok, King Of The Dead?"


    No bothers given, full speed, Loimos went straight to the point.

 Chapter 96: Corpse To Corpse Communication

    "Slow down there big boy, everyone knows that this is a matter of time, not of effort, why don''t we speak of my drugs, or perhaps of what is under that mask of yours?" she ignored the question, saying the same thing Irmandos had.


    She put one of her elbows on the table, leaning forward, shing her fangs at him, the furniture shaking abruptly when Armond hit his head trying to get up, weakly hoisting himself up for his head to peek up.


    "Miss One¡­ There is no need to worry about the trade in the city, I''ll keep doing my job!" at first, he had been wanting to say something about the fact that Loimos was probably not affiliated to Aliz¨¦, but the two had clearly been hitting it off from the get go.


    He didn''t even question the bit about undead of the dead or whatever it was that he had heard, he also did his best to ignore the fact that in that instant, his stalker''s voice had beenpletely different,ing from him but also not, instilling a deep sense of unease in him, like he didn''t belong.


    "It pleases me greatly to hear this, it really does, hum, Arnold? Whatever your name was, I''ll give you a promotion" the vampire turned to him, sounding just as casual but overall less friendly, Armond didn''t notice the subtlety in her tone or pale face.


    "You have my gratitude! What is it that I should do?" joining both hands together like in a prayer, One didn''t like that gesture one bit, her face immediately darkening in abhorrent disgust, bringing on hand in front of her face to shield her eyes from such decadence.


    "They''ll show you the ropes" with a snap of her fingers, figures garbed in white tainted by blood emerged from behind the trees, they were most likely the ones who had left traces of their passage and residuals of life around.


    Moving around with odd pauses and sudden impulsions of speed, they appeared like horrific puppets controlled by unsteady stings and twitching hands.


    Without waiting for much longer, they grabbed Armond, just as he realised what this all meant, despite all his years as a guard and living through his own handful of difficult situations, he didn''t possess the strength to break free from the hold of the thralls of Aliz¨¦, they grabbed his four limbs and carried him off into the woods as he screamed for help, screamed which fell on deaf ears.


    Like a damned insect, the vampire quickly scuttered up next to Loimos, she was rtively tall all things considered, Loimos had actually grown a bit since his beginnings, but he was just a head above her.


    "Hey, what is your name and why do you have no smell of your own" it was a good thing that Loimos bor little expectations of things and no reactions, because no one could have expected a vampire smoothly making her way across and shoving her face on your shoulder to take a whiff.


    "Loimos, Suppressing it, what is your name?" it seemed like she was quite the chatterbox, he would have to do his best and hold a conversation to hope to get somewhere.


    "I don''t have a name of my own, it''s just One, did you see those guys?


    They used to be random bumpkins wasting away on the streets, now, they are serviceable pawns that can be ordered to do anything, if I order them to fly, they''ll actually try until they die of high exertion" she rapidly transitioned, putting a hand on the undead''s shoulder and pointing in the general direction they had gone with the Armond, who had grown silent after merely a few seconds of disappearing from sight.


    Loimos could still sense his life force off into the distance, waving chaotically and decreasing every instant.


    "Using their bodies to create undeads would be more efficient and yield greater results, but mere strength of body is not what you are looking for-"


    "Yes! Oh, you really get me Loimos, the point of my little experiments is to be able to create pawns that would still be able to operate like normal on the surface, and, you know, use it on higher figures of nations, really mess everything up" she cut him off, seemingly very excited, it looked as if she was going to bust out some dance moves any moment from now.


    "But it is still far from such a result, yes?" he had been speaking with the pale tongue at the start but switched over to the dead tongue, Faraday had mentioned how those that lived in death struggled to acquire its usage.


    "Oh Loimos, your empty tone really strikes hard, if my heart was still beating, I might have skipped a few pulses¡­" but One proved that despite the very lively movements and tone, she was an undead who left life behind, the possibility wasn''tpletely dispersed.


    "You are right though, I am not a great alchemist and the ones that I painstakingly brainwashed with my meagre vampiric charms aren''t much better, the only advantage is that I can truly work them to the bone" her armour clinked and nked as she made wide movements with her arms.


    She turned to the skeleton, crossing her arms.


    "Enough about me however, why don''t you get morefortable and take that mask off? And maybe that I should relinquish the weight of my Armour as well?" she winked at the unfeeling corpse.


    "Even if the return of our ruler is decided by the passing of time, we should not remain idle, do you know where the royal crypt is?" wholly ignoring the previous statement, he asked his own question.


    "I have no idea, many ces are said to have crypts, but whether or not they belong to the king is hard to tell, I myself, am not proficient enough at sensing death force to know the difference between undeads stronger than myself, what about the one here, in Findpasser?" she answered seriously, still moving back towards him, clearly she wasn''t aware of what personal space was about, thankfully for her, Loimos didn''t know this concept either.


    Loimos exined that it was where Irmandos had been left trapped and that he had been destroyed, One didn''t know much at all about the days of the war, she had only been a vampire for a few years.


    She had not a single clue who Irmandos was, in fact, she only knew the founder of the sun-walking vampires by name.

 Chapter 97: Agreement

    "You have no knowledge of the war or the gravelords, yet you appeared certain that his majesty would be brought back by time alone, howe?" by then, the two of them were overlooking Armond getting wrapped up in bloody clothes, he had only been injected with a dose of thetest drug produced by One a few few minutes ago, but he had been made into a loyal servant already.


    "Don''t you feel in your guts?


    We undeads just know it, the king to soon break out of his cage ande back to lead us once more, that''s why I''m working to nt agents high up inside as many kingdoms as possible, this way, we could distract them with their own affairs for us to properly group up" she exined as the newly made thrall stood up and joined the ranks.of the few others the vampire had brought with her.


    She had spoken in length of many things, if Loimos didn''t stop her to question her, she would just keep on rambling, all the while moving closer and closer, to the point that she might just climb up on his back at one point, Loimos couldn''t be slowed down by her weight so he didn''t bother moving away.


    "So, you are set on finding out where the king is, and then you''re going to go find the ancient undeads who were part of the court?" One rubbed her chin, her other arm around the skeleton''s neck, she could clearly tell that his body was somewhat mushy by now, only cultivating her odd fixation.


    Loimos knew that the undeads that once surrounded the king were simply in realm of powers that he hadn''t even scratched yet, Slotriig, a royal guard, possessed incredible might, the heavy hitters on the side of the living had been there a long time ago, it was highly unlikely for them to still be around.


    Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter and Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light.


    Those two were the two big names of the living ording to Faraday, Ynig¨®s was an adversary that was said to be nearly unbeatable, only, he had disappeared without a trace half-way throughout the war.


    Liameilos was said to have been a high-elf, a long-lived species, which made it possible for her to still be around, but it was a challenge the undeads could ovee, there was also the issue of Sun-Walker, but once again, a single gravelord wouldn''t be able to topple everything.


    "That is my intention" he responded shortly.


    "Your own n has merit as well, may I have doses of the drug?" he extended his hand toward her, and she mused whether to hold or not but managed to contain her urges, calling one of thrall over and getting them to hand over four doses, each contained in small sealed containers, Loimos slid three inside of his coat and rotted the fourth, so that he may learn to replicate it eventually and add its effects to his blighted blood.


    With the matter of the crypt in Findpasser dealt with and his confirmation that the sun-walking vampire of Aliz¨¦ was an ally, he would be heading for Weafewand to check its own crypt himself, he made sure to interrogate One on the various cities he had to visit and if she was aware of any other crypt.


    Weafewand, unlike Findpasser was very focused on a single matter, it was said to be built above mines of stones and crystals dense with mana of all sorts of elements, a true wonder, mages were believed to be of greater powers when born there, as such, the entire city relied on magic researches and preparing their young mages to integrate into Toordefer Academy.


    Everything had to be done with magic one way or another their, as such, it was certain to be a difficult town to infiltrate for Loimos, magic casters would be everywhere and could be able to detect his abnormal mana, not to mention that if a fight broke out, Loimos would be at a disadvantage, spells can easily carve right through him, even with his death force reinforcements, he wouldn''t hold up against a barrage of spells.


    "Loimos, before you leave, would you mind, hum, lending me a hand?


    I had actually been meaning to silence everyone knowing of the deal within the city, those fuckers think they can just sell my stuff at a higher price than normal and not give me my money at all, I can''t have them telling on my business when the final product isn''t even close to being done, can you help murder every single criminal in this city, pretty please?" he could have told her that one of the royal guards he was going to look for eventually was a knowledgeable alchemist, but he knew that were idea of passing time, and his idea of it wherepletely different, it would take him months, if not longer just traveling from ce to ce to check the crypts and he might not find this undead at all.


    So he agreed, he could not possibly have a problem with ughtering people.


    "Alright, let''s find each other near that hole in the ground in three days, at night, I''ll bring the other three as well, don''t try to murder them please, I need them alive for my dealings" without borating any further, she sent a kiss flying his way and took her thralls away.


    It was a wonder whether she would still be so flirtatious was she aware that he was a skeleton coated in decay, but not one of Loimos''s, he headed back into the city, the gate still somewhat open from when Armond had sneaked out, he had gotten himself into the night shift ahead of time to be able to go out and meet with one, no one else seemed to have noticed that the gate wasn''t as it should.


    Loimos slipped inside, walked over to the rather simple contraption in charge of making the gate slid and closed it down as it should be before heading for the home of thete Armond, getting inside through a window that didn''t close as he had many times before and to insure that his disappearance wouldn''t be noticed too quickly, silenced the ones certain to know first.


    Clearing everything of possible proof of foul y, Loimos used the reminder of his time before the agreed time with One to do some light testing of his abilities.

 Chapter 98: Red Entrance

    With two bone ws and other tricks operational once more, Loimos stood on the outside of the gate supposedly preventing people from getting in, this night wasn''t nearly as bright as a full moon but the moonlight was shining somewhat either way, not that it mattered for Loimos, but One was bringing along some livings, it was unlikely that they all had great vision in the dark.


    The streets were once again empty, save for a few younglings that had ran through the streets a few minutes ago, it was certainly hard to imagine that some great criminal activities were constantly brewing just out of sight of Findpasser, One was selling drugs to fund her project, and from what she had said, they weren''t soft in the least, so the fact that Loimos had yet to stumble upon anyone under its influence was rather suspicious.


    It didn''t take much longer for the vampire and her temporary colleagues to show up, and they looked just as Miqi was described, save for some details he hadn''t mentioned, One walked over and leaned up against the undead.


    "This is Loimos, he''ll be helping us today" the undead nodded, as it seemed like the vampire wasn''t wholly certain that he wouldn''t attack anything that breathed on sight.


    Loimos wasn''t a wild animal, he could work with a few livings here and there, he would still be plotting their downfall as an entire group at the end of the day.


    Miqi had been right to be afraid of these women, they all indeed seemed mentally deranged in some way.


    Two, the desert woman was holding onto a long spear with a ded point, appearing more suitable to cut and ve than to pierce, she was just staring at the ground, deeply in thought, which she had been even as she had been walking over.


    Three, the one with the unusual green de just seemed itching to murder someone, all the while wearing a pleasant smile on her face and whistling a tune.


    As for Four, well it seemed rather obvious face to face that she wasn''t a human at all, from afar, one might make the mistake but upon closer inspection, it should have been clear that she wasn''t even close to being one.


    Apart from One, they didn''t seem very interested in the concept of armours, none were wearing an effective set of protective gear, but One had said that she needed them, so they were surely going to show him that they didn''t need any.


    "Let''s get down to business, one of the entrances to their underground is in a house nearby" the vampire led the way, it was a very good thing that no one was out, the mere sight of them gathered together would be enough to make children cry.


    Arriving before a home like any other, Loimos could confirm that two livings were inside, sitting down and ying some kind of card game, he still couldn''t use his synesthesia to its fullest extent when it came to his senses to detect life force unfortunately.


    The woman with the green de took the lead, assuming a simr stance to the man that wielded a simr de, but she was clearly on another level entirely, the man had mostly relied on the capacities his sword arts brought him to fight, but she was seemingly able to maintain the absurd eleration granted by the art.


    From the undead''s point of view, it was like the door burst open at the same time the two men inside had their heads detached from their bodies, one of them ying his cards before truly dying.


    Arts were truly an interesting concept, Loimos had tried to replicate the movements of the man from back then, and despite doing so wlessly, he had been unable to achieve the expected result, clearly, the arts held conditions beyond the stance.


    "One, those are freaking weak, absolute bums picked off the shit-flooded streets!" sheined, kicked one of the headless corpses down before sheathing her de once more, the weapon free of any blood.


    "Those are just the lookouts, tastes like crap" meanwhile, the bug-eyed woman took a bite out of one of them, shaking her head unfavourably.


    Clearly, the food was too nd for her liking.


    One was also busy with gathering the blood into a floating sphere, showing that she wasn''t very experienced as she struggled to do it for a little while, finally, the bodies themselves were disposed of by Loimos.


    Meanwhile, the one with the spear pried open a hatch in the ground, barely hidden underneath a rug, the locking mechanism was protruding from the ground, creating a bump on the chosen method of concealment, clearly, the criminals weren''t trying really hard.


    The covert nature of their dealings must have made it so they were never bothered in the first ce, considering that Armond had been part of their group as well, it wasn''t farfetched to believe that many other guards also worked for them.


    Loimos dropped down there first, able to confirm that the ck market was just ahead, bustling with customers that were probably not from Findpasser, the passage leading there was rather cramped, they would have to each step out into sight of everyone one by one.


    "Two, you''re up! Do the spin thingy" One spoke to the dark-skinned woman, who acquiesced with a nod and moved on ahead, after much brushing past everyone.


    Stepping out into the open, she cracked her neck and raised her spear above her head, everyone was either busy trying to negotiate prices and looking down with hoods over their heads to conceal their identity, so they took an awful lot of seconds to notice her spinning her weapon at high speeds.


    This time, it was no battle art, she just spun her spear in ce to build up momentum before turning into what could be essentially described as a tornado of blood and dismembered bits.


    "It hurts to think so much blood is going to get mixed in with filth"


    Once the gorey tornado concluded, the rest of them were already out of the narrow tunnel, ready for carnage, as the hysteria of the people settled in, nearly all of the other ways inside the underground copsed on themselves, the other passages linked to the outside of the city, so they had already been rigged with explosives, now detonated by One''s diligent, unwilling workers.


    As for the way they had gone in themselves, the monster woman spat something back at it, which deployed into thick, sticky spider webs.


    There were no ways out.

 Chapter 99: Slaughter

    I have seen my fair share of history, I have borne witness to many atrocities birthed from all sides and reaches, I know of whatys upon other continents, millions upon millions of kilometers across the sea and oceans, dreadful monsters, nations of madness, inds consumed by an ominous me, ces inhabited by beings we can noty eyes upon.


    I have gone to many ces, I have risked my life many times solely for the selfish desire of more knowledge, yet, somehow, there is only one thing capable of appalling me even more than the undead legions and their rotten desires.


    When I hear of a fellow person, someone gifted with reason, logic, blessed with the ability of sapience, when I hear that someone much like me in mind rejoices for the damage done to those they disagree with, celebrate the misfortune.


    I can only look upon them in disgust for they are squandering the freedom granted by their evolved mind, for they can not see that the damage done to their proimed enemies could soon befell them as well, they do not realise that byughing and epting what happens to their rivals, they are only leaving themselves open to the same happenings.


    So let us all shake hands for once, let us all recognise our differences but also the fact that we are all living, let us make use of the fight given to us, people of Viridis by the unreachable gods, we were granted the ability to all understand one another despite thenguage barriers, and yet, we haven''t used it to its full extent.


    Let us think freely and recognise ourmon enemies, those who oppose our very nature as living beings.


    Let us unite, and wipe out the threat of the living dead.


    -Excerpt of ''We The Breathing'' by Bethome Meleme.


    Loimos was thrown back into a flimsy stall as a bulky man bashed him in the side, only to also impact balls of rot, all ripe with petroleum-like blood, exploding with their nasty juices, the man, who had deemed it unnecessary to wear a shirt was doused in the malevolent concoction, his skin sizzling and sending him rolling to the ground.


    "Ahahah! Crying like a little baby?" the spider woman mocked him and the buff criminal witnessed with his one untouched eye at the four, horrifically long spider legs protruding from her back, all of them decorated with unlucky colleagues, who hadn''t been in before being paraded around.


    She kicked him in the face with much brutality back toward the already approaching Loimos, who put his foot up against his nape and gave it a good twist, a sick crunch indicating his certain demise.


    The whole ce had turned beyond chaotic at this point, most of the buyers couldn''t fight for the life of them, or were too spooked to try, leading to many people just running around like headless chickens, some of them, in fact, missing their heads.


    The various criminals inhabiting the ck market had quickly beguning out of hiding, but none proved to be particrly skilled or strong, no mages had shown their faces either, so the five of them were free to rampage as they pleased.


    One had pulled out two odd-looking des, somewhat simr to the one-edged de of her ally but much shorter,cking pointy tips and definitely bulkier, those des were clearly overly weighty.


    Using them as a medium, she was flinging flying blood des all over the ces, the shes aimed in on unsuspecting people, cutting them to the bone.


    Although, at the moment, the vampire was sitting back and gathering blood in an orb while simultaneously sipping from it with a wooden straw.


    Two, after her initial storm of limbs, hadn''t done any other shy moves and simply used the length of her weapon to easily pick apart the people trying to fight back, ignoring those unwilling tobat.


    Three on the other hand wasn''t aiming for anyone in particr, zipping around the ce without restraint, carving through masses of people, their clothes, flesh, bones and weapons incapable of even slowing her down as he mowed down the crowd all the whileughing wholeheartedly like she had just heard the most hrious joke ever.


    The spider woman, Four, was just adding more bodies to her growing collection impaled upon her extra legs, it wasn''t clear whether it served a purpose or not, but she seemed to be having a lot of fun doing this all the while chewing on a disembodied arm.


    As for Loimos, since he couldn''t quite keep up with the murder machines in the front, he just worked to absorb the ludicrous amount of death force in the air and cleaned up the corpses, objects left behind as well as the stalls and everything they had to sell.


    All of this would do good to add to his repertoire of things he had to learn to replicate with primeval rot, though he would first need to be able to grow bone structures at a moment''s notice like he was able to do with his blood, rot and miasma.


    An arrow empowered by mana was sent flying straight at One after someone came bursting out of the door elevated above the market itself, in fact, the archer was swiftly followed by others, all taking aim at different targets.


    The projectiles were right through the vampire''s head, without resistance for it had all turned into a pinkish mist right before impact, then turning back into her head, only that she had a light frown now, her wooden straw had fallen to ground for there were no mouths to hold onto it.


    Whether or not they thought they would be effective was unknown, but their volleys of arrows didn''t harm anyone, a bunch struck Loimos straight in the chest but they didn''t even hit his bones, they just sank right in and were consumed by decay.


    Moving up to the spider, Loimos mimed a flick with his finger and pointed at the archer.


    "Throw me" he demanded, and the spider showed him her countless teeth.


    "I like how you think rotbag!" without asking for more rifications, she curled up one of her extra legs, Loimos point his feet upon it and when she released it, the undead was sent like a true cannonball, much faster than when he did it himself, he ought to implement a system like this one instead of his imprecise sting procedure.


    Landing an elerated dropkick directly to the sr plexus of the archer directly in front of the door, the criminal''s neck was snapped before his body could be minced up as they struck the uneven wall behind.


    The two people inside the room looked at him as though he was an unicorn, sheer confusion stered all over their faces.


    Two men, one with a branding mark burnt right on his forehead and another, a barbarian-looking green-skinned orc.


    Loimos went back to his feet, casually moved up to the door and closed it, turning the lock even.


    "Who the fu-" the man with a brand etched onto his face wished to express his confusion aloud but both the orc and Loimos were already at each other''s throats.

 Chapter 100: Piercing Drop

    Apart from the three of them, the room was only filled with a rathervish desk, poorly painted art pieces and stacks of coins in a corner behind the branded man, the walls were carved roughly through the stone, the ceiling was a good height to amodate for therge orc, but all in all, the room was much longer than it was wider.


    The green-skinned fellow stomped forward, shaking the room, he towered well over Loimos, not much in terms of sheer height, but his shoulder width was simply enormous, multiple Loimos would be able to stand next to one another before reaching the same size.


    Pulling out the short ck de, Loimos mimicked the movements of its original owner perfectly, tricking the orc into thinking he was better at wielded the de than he really was, still, he didn''t back off and simply frowned, banging on his chest, the dull sound of metal hitting metal filling the room.


    The orc wasn''t wearing much armour at all, only a chestte and some of the leg pieces, his bulging arms were leftpletely unprotected, and unfortunately for the undead, his opponentwas well aware of this, banging on his chest and letting out a warcry was the necessary requirement to activate was battle art to reinforce his bare body against sharp weapons.


    His fists wrapped with spiked gauntlets, he charged toward the skeleton, who maintained his position, seeing someonepletely unbothered by his murderous charge, with which he was in many in a single hit was rather troubling, so he adapted and broke his momentum with nothing but the strength of his arms, instead switching up to a kick aimed straight at the center of Loimos''s mass.


    Like an eel, the undead weaved his body in an ufortable-looking position, somehow regaining his bnce without a hitch, the undead ran around the orc whilst he still had one leg up in the air, sliding back and attempting lodge the tip of his sword into the back of the knees of his adversary.


    But the de on bounced back harmlessly as it met with something harder than itself, crumpling to the ground and rolling away to avoid the counterattack, the two of them returned to their first positions, both having failed to do any harm, Loimos sheathed his de for it was clearly useless.


    Instead stepping back and probing the exploded cadaver he had made his bloody entrance with, shifting its entire mass into his own rot,pressing into a ball, turning a portion of the inside into fluid blood,pressing everything further again, but instead of using it to attack, he put it away and manifested a torrent of blood himself as the orc wasn''t going to let him to his things so easily.


    Backing up against a wall, the undead feigned surprise, unnecessary for his green enemy was already in the process of punching forward, the strikended straight where the skeleton''s stomach should have been, the orc only felt the hardness of the wall however, all of the rot and bones had been moved out of the way, the hard impact against the wall caused dust to fall from the ceiling, a wave of vibrations coursing through his body as a result of the manoeuver.


    "Watch the hell out! Do you want to get buried alive?!" the branded man had retreated further into the room, hiding behind his desk and chair like a scared little mouse, there was no way for him to hope to help the orc fight anything, so he was hanging back and not getting in the way.


    "Don''t you worry boss, I''ve got the freak!" the green fellow smiled brightly, showing off his tusks more than able of grinding the undead''s bone straight into bone meal.


    Saying this, he used his other fist to try and pop the skull of Loimos, against a wall, it was certain to work out perfectly, despite having already shown his resistance to being beheaded, the skeleton didn''t allow the orc to check if crushing was the same, his head, as though his neck had goneid, went swinging down up against his chest, resulting in the orc once against hitting nothing but the wall.


    Using the shock of having his opponent breaking their own neck spontaneously, Loimos pulled thepressed ball of rot filled with blood, he hadn''t stoppedpressing further and further ever since he had hidden it away, his hands moved right in front of the living''s face, the small, dense ball of rot spun up in the air right into front of his eyes.


    The orc didn''t really know what he was looking at, with both palms, Loimos pped down on the rot creation, rupturing the rot and propelling the packed blood forward, the uracy left to be desired, but at point nk, the undead didn''t have to worry about this.


    The ck blood surged in a line, missing the living''s eye only by a little bit and striking him against the side of his nose, managing to leave a hole and burn on it, drops of the vile liquid ending up inside of his ocr globe anyways.


    Reeling back at the sudden pain, the living brought his hands up to face, feeling the small drops of blood squirming around and digging into his soft bits like festering insects, the pain was nigh unbearable, and his vision on his left side was gued by growing dark spots.


    "Hey watch out-" the other man inside the room tried warning the orc, but it was futile, Loimos was already leaping on the orc like a rabid hound, shoving two fingers into the still good eye, popping the entire thing out of its sockets before injecting a small amount directly into the now hollow space, the orc grabbed the skeleton and threw him away before starting to blindly thrash around until he finally copsed as the corrosive blood dug into his brain.


    "Oh gods- Hey, surely we can speak about this? I have lots of money, I have a few connections to plenty of markets as well! very is banned on Viridis, but I can still get you one, what do you like man?" the man, apparently the boss of this ce, put his hands in front of him, like he was trying to calm down some dangerous predators approaching him.


    Loimos put all of his bones back in his their intended ces and began walking toward thest living in this room, the man in question could only look powerlessly at his supposedly secret escape tunnel, which had been copsed the same as the rest, despite the disy of power, he didn''t even realise that Loimos was an undead.


    "Not interested in money and ves? Those are temporary after all, I understand! I have a lot of goods you could choose from, maybe I could order something for you? Is there nothing that you like?!" he was forced into a corner as the undead didn''t stop advancing upon him.


    "You would not happen to be in possession of a map detailing the location of various dungeons and rted buildings, would you?" the man went pale as Loimos addressed him with the pale tongue, feeling himself dry of all words.


    Understanding that this was a no, Loimos stepped back and unsheathed his sword, slitting his throat.

 Chapter 101: Ones Delusions

    "There really is nothing left huh? You would make for a great assassin Loimos, you should consider joining the Fin-Limiers"mented Three, her green de resting on her shoulder, everything from corpses, items and even constructions had been eradicated from existence, even the slightest of misceneous objects had decayed away.


    Loimos had only left most of the money the head of the ck market intact for One to forward her ns with, but he had still rotted some, if he could learn to recreate them perfectly, he would be able to start murdering economies by proliferating those coins and then suddenly making them disappear.


    What a shrewd method it would be.


    "Alright then, I suppose it is time for us to part ways" the vampire put her hands on her hips, her threepanions off discussing something amongst themselves a distance away.


    Loimos was going to head for Weafewand, a ce he was certain would pose him lots of problems just manoeuvering in, but it would surely be a good experience, if an undead was really confined within this city, it was certain to a rather powerful mage, King Nitok was a mage himself and he had nurtured many other during his reign, any undead that had learned from him were highly valuable allies.


    One of them even was a royal guard, Slotriig had even imed that he was more powerful than he was, but really, any assistance was wee, it was a good thing that One was also working on something as well, the more undeads came together to prepare for the arrival of Nitok, the worse it would be for the living.


    "Hum, may I see your face, before we part ways and all that?" the vampire tip-toed up to him, showing him big round eyes like a kitten, as though that would aplish anything.


    He slid his mask up, having to put some force into it since it was stuck to his skull by plenty of disgusting bodily fluids and substances that could not be properly described without a full team of experts.


    Revealing his putrefied skull and teeth meant for ughter, the vampire squirmed in ce, tightening her fists as though she had to hold back from doing something, to her dismay, Loimos quickly put the mask back on.


    "Oh Loimos, you are exactly my type" she said seriously, ttering words addressed to a corpse with thoughts of genocide of all that lives.


    "There are plenty of rotten carcasses waiting toe out of hiding for his majesty" he assured her, but she waved his words off and nted a bloody kiss on the mask of moulding cadaver, Loimos felt nothing but if this sort of meaningless activities were going to get her to put her n into action faster, he would allow it.


    Absolutely not shaken in the least, Loimos reminded her of their job as undeads and walked away, the red mark of the kiss still right in his mask, it certainly gave him a less cold vibe, nobody would think that the guy getting kisses was a vile undead after the life of everything alike.


    "Did you just say that your type was a corpse?" the desert woman couldn''t ignore that statement, even for a vampire that was freaky, she looked genuinely distressed as the images forced themselves in her mind.


    "You wouldn''t get it" One responded with a smile.


    "I sure hope I will never get it!"


    "Just you watch, I will teach him about love, and then we''ll have lots of half-vampire half-skeletons babies"


    "Alright, I am leaving"


    "I agree with Two, that crap is too much even by my standards" said the spider monster currently licking an eyeball like it was a delicious candy.


    "People like you is why cremation is getting more popr" all three of her colleagues took shots at her before making their way out, soon enough, the empty space where the ck market once stood was left deserted.


    On his way out of the city, Loimos broke into the businesses he had noticed before and decayed their products and tools for undead purposes, Weafewand may be the closest city on his list but it was still much further than Findpasser had been from the spot he had emerged out of the caverns, he might actually need to get a carriage or horse, which implied learning to drive and ride each one respectively.


    For now, he walked into the night, taking the main road as he had before, the beaten path empty of all cirction at the moment, stretched out into the horizon and the night soon turned into day, the deadly heat returning with it, the suns sending down waves of heat even greater than the previous days, to the point that it wouldn''t be strange for wildfires to spontaneously begin where the canopy of the countless trees didn''t cast deep shadows.


    His hand deep into his salt-filled pockets, Loimos was really starting to master his ''lively'' walk, looking less like a wandering murderer than before, even if just by a little bit.


    Suppressing his stench of death at all times, he was osted by wild beast and monsters on a few asions, the sort of monsters that lurked near such roads were rarely very dangerous however, the territorial ones that had used to live around had quickly been killed or push away, and for the simply powerful ones, much the same treatment had befell them.


    Roads were goods travelled were an affair of great importance, especially in Tamaris, it wasn''t something that could be left to chance, Loimos had no trouble dealing with the few that dared showed up when they saw him moving all by himself.


    He passed by multiple viges and settlements, and may have shown some livings there that the other side was a much better ce, but for the most part, he moved without stopping at all.


    Up until he met a man by the side of the road, the wheel on his carriage had broken beyond repair, and of course, this human tried to ask for some assistance.

 Chapter 102: Reminder Of The Basics

    "Alright then, I know all of you already learnt this, but not that I mean to insult your teachers and instructors, it is simply rathermon for egregious shortcuts and simplifications to be made when they shouldn''t, thankfully, as shown during the earlier test of your generalpetences, all of your have a good grasp of mana weaving" Milo and Helena were sitting side by side, she was expertly attentive as usual, he was also paying attention, feeling quite rxed after all.


    The entrance ceremony hadn''t been too bad, and contrary to what he had used to hear about nobles and people of higher bloodlines, no one was an overly annoying prick, Toordefer Academy wasn''t a ce for one to mess around in, it was considered the finest academy for magic and energy teachings.


    And since Tamaris was a nation that preferred to remain neutral at all times, there were even foreigners roaming the halls, everybody here felt like it was an honour to be here, honestly, Milo had no idea how in all of creation he had ended up here with Helena.


    Thankfully, it seemed like it wouldn''t be as difficult as he pictured, thedy teaching them was simply going to go over the criteria to gauge one''s mana, something he had learned well.


    The woman teaching them was clearly a mage by profession, dressed up in dark red robes, she was still moving around unhindered in the least, her hair were simrly a bright red colour, not orange, actual red.


    Milo had never seen this before, even her eyes seemed to be ignited with fire, she had presented herself as Rosemary and judging by the gasping that had urred, she was rather famous, though, if they knew her already, how could they have not recognised her on the spot?


    Milo shook his head, he needed to focus even if he supposedly knew the lesson already.


    "Each one of us have simplicities and difficulties due to the various aspects of our mana, it goes without saying, but there are various methods to improve each of those aspects, be it by simply practising more, using the system or specific items, do not forget that the differences in your mana will most certainly always remain, the people with greater mana than you will always be better at the same level, keep that in mind as a rule of thumb" she crossed her arms, many had the bad reflex of focusing on the mass that had been elevated by such an action.


    Milo kept it straight, he had other mounds to worry about, Rosemary continued her lesson unbothered.


    "Alright, then the basics of the basics, inner maniption, this is where the magic happens, literally, you circte and form spells inside of your body before manifesting outside, generally by retaining physical touch with the spell, which, while having technically brought the spell out, allows you to retain control over it with inner control"


    She turned to an open window, raised her right hand and manifested a me from the top of her index finger as demonstration.


    "A nice trick, however, if you were to fight anyone, this means that you have to tantly signal that you are casting a spell, and in this manner, the direction you are aiming in is also beyond obvious, this can be solved with outer maniption or by simply being faster in your casting" she exined, also taking some time to ask around if people around were still using gestures and spoken words to cast basic spells, the high amount made her sigh deeply.


    "So, outer maniption¡­ In practice, you will feel that is like inner maniption but just awfully more difficult, depends on whether you project some of your mana outside of your body or take over some ambient mana, but both ways have their share of problems, most people barely bother with this in the end, they only learn it in very close proximity to themselves at most" she then effortlessly conjured up a round ball of fire all the way at the back of the ss, maintaining it whilst simultaneously talking and moving around, not even keeping her eyes on it.


    Right after saying how difficult it was, she was definitely flexing her otherworldly mana control on them, and it was working wonders, everyone was agape.


    Rosemary didn''t feel the need to bask in the admiration of students that couldn''t even qualify as third-rate mages yet, she pped her hands, causing the orb of mes to disappear.


    "Now, limit, do you all remember what that means?" now that she had gone over the most obvious of all, she decided it was time to see if they had properly learned before showing up here.


    Many hands raised at the same time, the striking silence of the ss only interrupted by the shifting air caused by their arms standing straight.


    In true teacher fashion, Rosemary looked at the people that clearly knew the answer, her gaze thennding on a mousy girl at the front, who was definitely not asking to answer the question.


    "So, what is limit all about?" the poor girl swallowed her saliva, took a deep breath and gave her answer slowly.


    "Limit refers to the maximum amount of mana one can force into a spell on top of the necessary amount, it¡­ It also sometimes refers to the opposite, how much someone can remove mana from a spell and still make it work out as intended¡­" the girl was looking down.


    "Perfect! Indeed, that is what limit is all about, and unlike what some may say, it goes both ways" their red teacher praised the timid girl and moved on to the next point.


    "Efficiency is rted to limit in some capacity, having higher efficiency means that you will consume much less mana than average, with bad efficiencyes awful mana usage, if you are weak in that department, do not worry, it is one of the more easily solved by simply training" she reassured.


    "I don''t need to exin capacity, it is just your total amount of mana, always useful to have more than everyone else, but having an enormous amount makes it harder to conceal and you may have the bad habit of pouring more mana than necessary" she exined a few things anyways, apparently, there were downsides to have lots of mana.


    The lesson about the basics of mana was getting quite lengthy, the more it went on however, the less they would be speaking of more advanced stuff, Milo was liking this prospect.

 Chapter 103: Stumping Question

    "Recuperation should also be self-exnatory, it is the rate by which you recover your lost mana naturally, the faster the better but if your recovery is too fast, you might suffer from some mana sicknesses, it''s kind of eating too fast, so you would have to learn to bear the effects or manage to slow your recuperation yourself" Milo hadn''t thought that their could possibly be disadvantages to have a mana aspects way above average, he had imagined that the great mages one would sometime hear about were of those whose every aspects were off the charts.


    Rosemary seemed to be implying otherwise however, walking through the halls, tormenting nobles and talentedmoners alike with insidious questions, the ssroom was much like an auditorium, the students were higher elevated than the teacher at her desk, only when she went by Milo did he realise that the fiery-coloured mage was actually quite tall.


    In fact, he was fairly certain that he had never seen such a tall person ever, but more notable than this, with his meagre amount of training in mana detection, he noticed that he couldn''t sense her mana in the least, in fact, even when she had casted spells, he hadn''t noticed anything, he chalked it up to his proficiency being poor but was still rather impressed.


    "Transmutation now, few are the mages who make use of basic mana on the regr, it is usually favoured to use the element one is aligned with, even those with no particr affinities tend to rather go through the bother of using an element anyways" she took a pause and stared straight at a random student, freezing him in ce.


    "That is absolutely idiotic, basic mana isn''t something to leave behind, I would wager that basic mana will always be the mana you have the most control over, unless you are a special case and possess a specific trait"


    "Keep on using mana in its raw form" she advised them, although it sounded more like an order.


    "Thenes the power, or sometimes referred to as output, the capacity for destruction of each of our manas is different, it is an aspect that is nearly impossible to improve by simply training, thankfully, spells and condensing mana allows an easy way to improve fire power even with ridiculously low power"


    "Once again, too much power can prove difficult to control, and may even bring harm to the caster, lot of items, such as most wands and staff increase the power however, but those are for special asions, or ipetents" she spoke thosest two words really quickly, as though they could be directed at someone in particr.


    She quickly moved on, summoning two mes, making them orbit around her, the one closest to her spinning much faster than the one further away.


    "Speed, exactly the same thing as power, they go hand in hand really, someone with both tremendous speed and power in their mana can cast a simple mana bullet and obliterate a sturdy creature, let''s say a bear, as an animal, it doesn''t have much magic defences, an average mana bullet would pierce without much problem, the one with great speed and power would make the poor beast explode everywhere" she mimed the explosion with her hands, apparently imagining it vividly.


    "Resistance is much more important than you think, every year, the younglings seem to think everything is about maniption, power and speed, they are wrong and so are you!


    If all of you casted a spell at me right now, I would be able to dismantle all of them, turn your mana into my own and throw it right back in your faces before you get the time to breath out" she casually imed, there were around fifty students in the ssroom, everyone here was talented in a way, some tremendously so, but she didn''t doubt herself one bit.


    Of course, the students kept their mouths shut even if they highly doubted her im, it would be a bad look to get pped in the face by their teacher on the first day, perhaps some would grow braver at ater date.


    "Resistance governs how well your mana can hold together against the ambient energies and the interference of other mages, it also governs the amount of time your spell will remain effective once you let go of your control, it is perhaps the most important aspect when in a battle against another magic user" she did a quick demonstration of what dismantling a spell looked like by calling forth a haughty-looking boy, that was actually all jittery from stress.


    He casted a mana bullet as was instructed, Rosemary first stopped it in its track, and slowly demonstrated how to break down a spell, exining as she did it that it also applied to other energies and that they would be learning about those as well.


    "Taking a spell apart is a skill affiliated with outer maniption, you can see how much more powerful a mage with good outer maniption would do against one that does not, none of their spells would be able to reach their target properly, if at all"


    "Trait, as well as internal and external are rare specificities, trait are as diverse as it can get, your natural mana can be an element already or be attuned to one, those examples are the mostmon sorts of traits, but they can be much less obvious, I for example, possess mana that is already an element and is also attuned to various others, this means that I can skip the transmutation and cast spells even faster"


    "Internal and external now, all of you here have internal mana, meaning that your mana doesn''t naturally overflow and wrap around your body, as you can expect, this means that those with external mana don''t need to bring their mana out manually, haveyer of protection at all times but also that concealing their mana signature is much more difficult" she went over those quickly, since for those that were concerned, they would receive personal guidance.


    Rosemary quickly exined perception and range as well, those were very much simple, although, there was once again a downside to having too good of a perception, as it could get one easily distracted.


    Their teacher then smiled and asked them all a question:


    "Do any of you know thest aspect of one''s mana?"


    ''Hold a second¡­'' Milo counted real quick, fourteen aspects, Rosemary had spoken of all of them already, was it a trap?


    He looked over at Helena, she was frowning and rubbing her chin, her face switching from one troubled expression to another.


    Milo slumped in his seat, if she didn''t know, how could he? She had taught him everything.

 Chapter 104: Talkative

    "Ah good sir! Would you mind lending a hand to a man caught within times of trouble?" the man by the side of the road was needlessly formal, he seemed rather distressed too.


    But unlike how it had first appeared to Loimos, this man wasn''t alone in the least, there was someone hidden inside of the carriage, their life force signature was simply faint and had been directly behind the more vibrant life of the man, concealing it from the undead, up until he got closer and got another angle of vision on the scene.


    "You must be desperate to ask just anyone for help" Loimos didn''t frighten him to death and used his imitation voice, then pointing at the broken wheel without allowing for the coachman to respond.


    "Do you have a spare?" he questioned as the living rubbed the back of his neck, nodding his head.


    "I do but the entire thing just shattered, the carriage has tipped over and I don''t have the mean to lift it to rece the wheel" exined the man, most certainly feeling really stupid at the moment, he had never had any problem of this sort and had clearly never spared some time to think about the eventuality.


    Loimoscked the capacity to make fun of him, and didn''t see the point in ying that sort of role at the moment, instead, he walked past the driver, took a good look at the two horses and then looked straight through the fabric covering the goods inside of the carriage.


    "Why not ask for the miss inside for some assistance?" he coldly remarked.


    Paling, the coachman forced out a wry smile, looking left and right as though this ce saw a lot of passage this time of the year, the living, who had been holding out well under the extreme heat suddenly drenched in sweat, trying toe up with reasons but only silently moving his arms around.


    Under Loimos''s unmoving gaze, he yielded and begged for his secrecy as he did his best to exin the situation in terms that didn''t make him look too bad.


    "A ve for a mage to experiment on? So, you are heading for Weafewand, who else knows of this little trade, the magic-focused city would not miss a person being snuck into their walls" the living''s shoulders eased, Loimos appeared to not care in the least about this.


    Despite very and everything rting to the practice having been wholly left behind centuries ago across the entirety of the continent, only isted tribes still practised it in the open, as the for the rest, it was only urring in the ck markets and even then, few criminals yed into this much, it had be more than a forbidden practice, it was genuinely seen as something even a king would have trouble getting away with were it to be heard that they took part.


    Tamaris in particr, with its way of handling economics and money, had never done any in its history.


    But there were still a few who were willing to pay for ves, such as researchers wanting to perform destructive tests and experiments on fellow human beings and other sapients.


    "The guards at the gate have already been bribed heavily I was told, the client is rather influential in the city as well, he is a rare holy mage, I am not sure what that really means, but it''s a big deal apparently, I hear he wants to experiment creating angel-like familiars" he spilled everything without hesitation, definitely a poor choice to carry such a sensitive package.


    "Do the guards know to expect you in particr?"


    "Well no, I never went to Weafewand ever! Haha, I am just supposed to mention that I am here to deliver something to this mage, with the guards mana sense, they''ll notice the ve immediately too, so-"


    "Very well then, I shall lift, and you shall rece the wheel" Loimos moved on instantly and the coachman almost jumped up in joy, he had been stuck here for hours now, and he was fearful of the reaction that would ur if he delivered with extreme tardiness.


    Loimos walked up to the carriage, he had no problem lifting the carriage enough for the living to do what was needed, the undead wasn''t holding up the entire weight of the carriage anyways, with one hundred percent strength usage in every part of his body and perfect posture, he could literally do this years, the carriage would dpose into nothingness without any strain put in the skeleton.


    "Ah, thank the gods for you! What can I do to repay the favour, good sir?" the man offered, not only was it natural to do, but Loimos had just effortlessly done something impressive just before, he wouldn''t want to get punched by someone with that sort of strength.


    "I am also headed for Weafewand, and would like to learn how to operate a carriage as well as how to ride a horse" the living saw absolutely zero downside to this and readily agreed, starting to treat Loimos as though they were colleagues in his illegal ordeal.


    Loimos had found a ride, but the distance separating them from the city of magic was still lengthy, and after showing the ropes of what the undead had wanted to learn about, the living began to speak and speak.


    Even under the scorching heat, he had plenty of energy to spare to discuss anything, when they were moving, he talked, when they stopped and he went to check on the ve, he still wouldn''t stop yapping.


    "What do you think? It''s a shame that such a cute girl is going to get dissected, heh?" he was making a topic out of everything and nothing, the undead could only try and push him into actually interesting topics or nod his head.


    "Honestly, I didn''t want to take this job, but I had to see to the future, everything is going wrong around me, and my life was honestly not going in the right direction either, with the money from this job, I''ll totally be able to afford living a good life, build a nice house in front of ake, find myself a good woman and have a bunch of kids, I would prefer a boy as my first but I can adapt¡­"


    Loimos nodded.

 Chapter 105: Look Over Here

    "Really, it wasn''t easy to adapt to Viridis, you guys here can all speak the samenguage and when I set foot here, I could do to, it was really disconcerting, it felt like my mouth and ears were possessed, but thanks to that,pared to Belliste, you guys here are much more peaceful, who could have guessed that being able to understand one another clearly would lead to more efficient diplomacy?" the livingughed, he had told Loimos his name at one point but it wasn''t important information.


    What he was spouting right now was otherwise more interesting, this inconspicuous-looking man had actuallye from another continent entirely, that wasn''tmon, most of those that attempted such travels died at sea, smashed into paste by a dreadfully powerful monster of the waters, or falling victim to the natural happenings of the oceans.


    He was actually very knowledgeable, so Loimos listened on.


    "Yoreterre is actually very close to Belliste, our ships would be able to make the trip back and forth without getting obliterated rather often!


    Ah, Yoreterre is a whole continent supposedly inhabited by nothing but beasts and monsters, no civilisations to speak of on there, with the resources that can be grabbed there, we can create more powerful weapons and such, to wage even more brutal wars, yadi yada¡­" the living had taken the risk of leaving his home continent precisely because of the constant conflicts.


    "Honestly, even if you gave them a singrnguage, I doubt it would solve anything for them, even babies want to rip apart the other nations" he shook his head dejectedly.


    Loimos prompted him to speak about the other continents he knew of, but he didn''t seem to know more than surface level information.


    "Lefaux, Verdoyante, Bermude, Durter and Dragonnerie, most of them sound like nothing more than stories to me, but their existence was never questioned, continents led by golems and spirits, nothing but nt life, entirely submerged in deep waters, buried under the earth or floating in the sky and guarded by hundreds, if not thousands of dragons, you have to see it to believe it and I haven''t"


    The living''s thoughts wandered off to some unknown ces for a moment, probably deciding what to speak of next.


    And speak he did, of every person he had encountered in his life, of every country he had visited before settling down in Tamaris, Loimos was able to learn much about the current state of things on Viridis, this man had visited many ces, though he was unable to think of any dungeon or crypt he had encountered during his journey.


    He only stopped to sleep, eat and drink, and finally when Weafewand showed up in the far distance.


    "Ah, here we are and it seems like there is no line for us to wait in, the trade route must be linked to another gate-" before he was allowed to drift off and resume his endless spewing of words, Loimos raised one hand, pointing back at the carriage behind them.


    "The ve is making some suspicious noises" the undead warned the living, getting him to instantly hop off and move to check on her whereabouts.


    Flipping the cloth covering open, revealing way on a rather spacious cage containing a fair young woman sleeping on afy-looking nket, it was a special delivery after all, the goods had to be taken care off properly, which was why she was well fed and unhurt, the cage even had a cooling system, a luxury even the deliverer didn''t enjoy.


    She was worth more than him after all.


    The soon to be sold girl groggily opened her eyes, meeting the confused gaze of the coachman.


    "Are you sure? She is just wa-" he couldn''t even turn around, only knowing that something was wrong by the widening eyes of the ve.


    A hand grabbed him by the back of the head, pushing him forward and mming his forehead against the cage, once, twice, thrice, four times, six times, ten times, again and again until his skull cave in, only then was he pulled back and thrown to the ground, where he was finished off with a series of stomps all over his face and throat.


    The man barely had time to yelp in shock or pain during the ordeal, knocked out by the first blow he suffered.


    His body dposed along his personal belongings in an instant, Loimos turned toward the young ve girl, who was certainly shocked by the sudden disy of brutality, enacted by a man she hade to believe was a friend of the one that had just been ughtered like filth.


    The bloodstains and bits of gore soon decayed away from the undead''s clothes, leaving only the general filth and dust covering him, as well as the singr bloody kiss on his mask, he didn''t bother trying to converse with her and simply opened her cage with the key he had just stolen from the body, making sure not to rot it as well.


    With a single punch right to her face, he knocked her out and closed the cage back, moving on back to the front of the carriage, driving the rest of the way toward the gate leading into Weafewand.


    The guards there certainly looked at him like they should, with suspicion as he approached.


    "I have a package for the famed holy mage" he spoke to them as soon as they were within ear shot, immediately rxing, they let him in despite clearly noticing that his mana was weird, but he knew of the trade and had someone in the back, they didn''t see any reason to distrust him and possibly make the delivery runter than it otherwise should.


    Once inside the city, Loimos drove to a quiet portion of the city, some people gave him weird looks, but they didn''t bother much further with him, his atypical looks weren''t exactly strange inside this ce, where plenty of entrics gathered.


    Once he had no more eyes upon him, Loimos swiftly did what needed to be done, ying the girl and horses, then decaying everything, including the carriage itself, now he just needed to bide his time and wait for nightfall.


    Unaware that a pair of eyes retracted back into the shade of an alley after seeing him do all of this.

 Chapter 106: Weafewand

    "I see that none of you have heard of thest aspect, and it is perfectly understandable, chances are, your former instructors haven''t either, since it is a new addition, it will take some time before the knowledge spreads, and it is an important aspect that always should have been measured" Rosemary exined with a vibrant smile, it wasn''t umon for the new aspects to be brought up.


    Typically, they were either covered by an already existing one, or simply in wrong, this new one had been deemed to fit however.


    "It has been given the provisory name of ''know'', and if you know anything about the convention of researches and our scientificmunity, provisory means that it will be the official name for the many years toe" she reached for something underneath her desk, pulling out a familiar-looking orb, all of the students had interacted with such things before, it was a tool used to measure one''s mana aspect.


    "We''ll end this simple lesson by gauging your guys''s know, any idea what it could refer to?" their teacher asked them, knowing full well that the appetion told pretty much nothing about what it was about, but she could always be surprised.


    No one seemed willing to try, until one hand rose, content that someone had the spine to shoot their idea in the dark, Rosemary gestured for Helena to speak.


    ''Absolute mad woman'' Milo smiled to himself, looking at her perfectly stoic face, he had just seen herpletely at loss mere seconds ago, she was positively trying to bullcrap her way to victory.


    "It could be referring to how much¡­ One''s own mana knows who its owner is?" she narrowed her eyelids, everyone waiting for Rosemary''s response, who was just standing there, her arms crossed and looking just as usual.


    One boy in the back pulled on the cor of his shirt, getting hot despite the state of the art cooling system equipped into the entirety of this academy.


    "That is close enough, it is used to refer to how much one''s one mana and spells can affect the user, whether they can be hurt by them, and if so, how much, it also deals with other, non-explicitly harmful effects, such as, whether or not a mage will be affected by the pushback of an explosion they caused, or if they can feel the heating from their own fire spell"


    "Of course, one can grow better to avoid drawbacks, or be affected by their offensive spells if need be" quickly ushering people to get in line and test on this aspect for themselves, as it turns out, the know generally fell into two categories.


    One was either affected by all phenomena caused by their offensive spells, or were only slightly protected from the harmful effects, no one found themselves perfectly immune, neither of those three options seemed to be ideal in the eyes of Rosemary however.


    Their teacher believed that one should learn to master this aspect of their mana, since it made one much more flexible, being unaffected by the effects of your spells could allow one to unleash a violently harmful spell at point nk without any worries, but possessing perfect immunity wasn''t exactly a great thing either, this meant that one couldn''t use their offensive spells with flexibility at all, the st of a spell couldn''t be used to propel oneself for example.


    Or if one were to be attacked by a spell from within, they would find it impossible to deal with it since it would inevitably involve harming oneself with their own mana to fight back, that second idea was unlikely to happen, but Rosemary had encountered such things.


    Once again, it all came down to whether one wanted to excel at magic, or stick to the fundamentals, all great mages need to either master their mana, or be lunatics and use it in the most unconventional of ways.


    A little bit of both could carry one a long way.


    "Alright then, I''ll dismiss you for now, next lesson, we''ll continue with theoretical knowledge, mana cores, mana crystallisation and all that rtes to them, now shoo"


    _____________


    Loimos was in a bit of a tight spot, he was in a little of a pickle one could say, perhaps it might be correct to say that he was faced with a nearly insurmountable problem.


    There was indeed a crypt contained within Weafewand, but unlike in Findpasser, it wasn''t simply surrounded by highly ineffective fences, the entire thing had been encased with enchanted iron, covered with runes, magic circles, sigils and even surrounded by an entire array, the entire thing was also floating up in the sky, in sight of everybody, and under surveince by guards that were definitely much more of a problem that the regr schmucks Loimos had encountered many times.


    They were moreparable to the guard captain of Throdqdmond, Robert had been, and would probably still be a difficult opponent for Loimos to face, even with all his new tricks and enhanced physical capacities.


    These men and women probably weren''t as great with the sword as the captain had been, but they were trained in extensive mana usage and armed with otherwise more threatening equipment, the undead would get pieced up with efficiently.


    Adding all of this to the fact that his peculiar mana instantly got their attention, Loimos had no way of breaking in at the moment.


    He would first need to get rid of the guards, also make sure that no one else could just see him making his way up there, and then he would have to break through the hefty defences.


    Now that was a devious challenge, thankfully, Loimos had plenty of time, since he was dead.


    Faraday would tend to say that mana was the most prominently used energy, for it was the most plentiful on the continent, and thus, quite a few people had talent andrge reserves of it within their bodies, he had enumerated a rather lengthy list of other energies, said that this was barely a few examples, and that the average person actually had some amount of every single energy, with only a few exceptions, such as life and death force, those two excluded one another.


    Whilst they each had slight differences and favoured applications, the principles caught with mana could be applied to them as well, meaning that by listening in and asking progressively more precise questions to anyone he met around here concerning mana, he could actually use this knowledge for death force.


    Faraday may be a powerful mage, but he himself admitted that he was more of a fighter than anything, which was part of the reason he was utterly unable to learn a zone, he mostly used his metal mana to hit harder, making him not the greatest person to teach such things.

 Chapter 107: Dealing In Death

    "Still nothing?" a man of stalwart build, his shoulders wide and his face seemingly carved out of smooth stone, he asked a young woman wearing bright robes simr to his.


    Unlike him, whose skin was rather fair and whose head was adorned with buffalo horns, his ears simrly that of the animal rather than human ones, the young woman was rather smell and had oversized ears that didn''t seem to be that of any known animal, her skin reddish and decorated by slight bumps resembling pebbles growing out of her body.


    "No¡­ Despite having definitely entered the city, the package you ordered haspletely vanished, the man driving it was rather peculiar and was spotted on multiple asions, his mana signature is rather hard to follow, ambient mana just spontaneously fills in and reces his mana residues¡­" she spoke carefully, only looking up at the horned man from time to time, his expression had been rather scary at the beginning of this.


    As a few days had gone on, he just looked tired now however, the initial anger had since faded away, the holy mage only wishing to uncover what was going on, it didn''t make any sense.


    The guards under his boot had assured him that the coachman had arrived with the package, witnesses had seen him inside the city as well, his bizarre mana hard to ignore, yet, the good, alongside the carriage and two whole horses had vanished into thin air, and now, like a ghost, the coachman was wandering around, doing whatever.


    Who wouldn''t have cashed in the money for the delivery? Had someone else offered more money? At thest second? The more he tried to find reason, the more nonsense he uncovered.


    "What do you want to do, Sir Maelstroff?" his assistant asked him after a minute of utter silence, her ears twitching.


    "Only the coachman can give me answers, I''ll go look for him myself" he dismissed her and slumped in his seat, it was alreadyte, tomorrow would be the day.


    He closed his eyes for a few seconds, falling asleep surprisingly quickly, only awakening muchter when the door to his office was unceremoniously pushed open, the entire room had turned significantly darker, only illuminated by the mana crystals on the ceiling, casting a faint andfortable glow.


    Quick to awake and rid himself of any grogginess, the holy mage stood straight in his seat, used to havingte night visitors, although those visitors weren''t generally here for work purposes.


    Standing in the doorway, their face cast with shadows, a deformed-looking figure stepped into the room with remarkable casualness, still, the mage had already leaped out of his seat and taken multiple steps back, that didn''t seem like an friendly visit.


    "Name yourself" he ordered, ready to cast a spell at the intruder, his horns brightening with bright, gold-like light, revealing that he had etched runes and such into them.


    "I am sure you can guess" stepping forward, basking into the bluish light of the crystals was a woman, garbed in a horrendously long and wide dark cloak, she showed him her hands, apart from her face, everything was wrapped in dark as well, some sort of leathery matter it seemed but it was hard to say.


    ''Dark brown hair, a bit curly, weird obscene look in the eyes, palish, not a bad face, negligible curvatures¡­'' analysing her with his expertise, he suddenly backed away further, noticing a thin dagger strapped to her waist.


    "The Death Dealer? Who the hell put a hit on my head?" he asked, knowing with certainty that he wasn''t big enough of a deal for the murderous maniac of the Fin-Limiers to show up on his doorstep.


    "It''s a bit difficult to exin, but the king heard of some rise in ve trade within the country, ordered some of his nobles to deal with it rapidly and one of those nobles hired me so that they could be very, very efficient" she didn''t see any problem telling him this, clearly, she was intent on silencing him.


    "I hear you, I hear you, but I have nothing to do with any sort of ve trade, I can assure you" he had heard plenty about the one called Death Dealer even amongst a group of assassins, she was no stranger to killing even those that had nothing to do with her missions, even if he was to prove with perfect evidences that he shouldn''t be put on the chopping block, she was still likely to murder him right here and there.


    "No need to lie, I heard it all from the seller and delivery guy already, I know that you aren''t the only one either in this town" she retracted her arms behind her oversized cloak, and she began stepping forward, each and every movement of hers nearly impossible to follow with the eye, it was like every part of her bent and weaved at ufortable, impossible angles.


    Without hesitation, Maelstroff unleashed the spell he had been charging up, sending a brilliant barrier covering the entire room in length hurling right at the assassin, instantly rushing for the window behind his desk, breaking through the window andnding on the roof of another building next door.


    Somehow, before he could rush forward again, the malformed shadow that was The Death Dealernded without a sound right in his path.


    He had trouble believing that she could deal with his barrier so quickly, but he had no time to think, the assassin was already right in his face, impossible to detect with his mana senses and dreadfully fast, he casted multiple spells all at once, weaving and manifesting them in an instant before the dagger pierced his neck.


    First, a wave of holy of mana, forced The Death Dealer away, secondly, a serie of barriers formed in between the two of them and at odd angles around the assassin, wanting to restrict her movements as he unleashed yet another spell, a bright light illuminating the city in the middle of the night.


    But the idea wasn''t to alert anyone, the mage knew that no one would get here quickly enough, especially when he saw the assassin carving through his spells like they were warm butter.


    ''That dagger¡­'' the de she swung around with as much strangeness as she moved was nothing short of a tool designed to ughter mages.


    He had first believed to be able to run from her, that option out of reach, he circted his mana once more and called forth a luminous figure armed with two swords, sending it forth as a distraction as he reached for something around his neck, crushing it, he felt a his neck being shed right as he was transported away.


    "Mission aplished" The Death Dealer stretched her arms, knowing that the holy mage was already done for.

 Chapter 108: Speed Reading

    "Incredible! And you say that you''ve never practised magic in your life?" an excited old man spoke with one hand in front of his mouth.


    "There was no such time to practise" Loimos responded truthfully.


    Unaware that his question was set up for such an answer, the old man rubbed his short beard, still having a hard time that no one else had ever picked up this man as an apprentice ever, even without having ever used his mana, his aspects were incredibly good.


    "Well, I don''t think I am qualified to rmend anything to you in particr, I don''t think there are any areas of magic were you couldn''t excel with your raw talent, just walk around and check if anything catch your attention" the old man was actually the keeper of the main library of Weafewand, and having obviously noticed Loimos''s peculiar mana, which he believed to be like this due to a trait, which was probably exactly what this was.


    Everything Loimos rted just had the ''undead'' trait attached to it, but since even amongst the ranks of the dead that wasn''t something typical, none of the many mages that had approached Loimos were able to notice that his trait was something so condemning.


    The undead had done a good job of concealing his death force, and since he had an abundance of other energies gued by his trait, the attention of people was absolutely absorbed by those as they surrounded his death and covered it from view.


    He had spent a few days roaming the streets and listening in on conversations, saw someone get shed in the throat on a rooftop, that guy had gotten absolutely dominated, absolutely demolished by what Loimos could only qualify as a professional, he had only been able to know the mage wasn''t spontaneously dying from self-manifesting shes by looking at the scene directly, absolutely impossible to sense the presence of his attacker otherwise.


    And still, he hadn''t been able to tell what had been attacking him exactly from his spot, that was some pretty exemry show energy suppression and sheer stealth.


    Being stealthy whilst having already been spotted was simply another dimension of sneaking and infiltration.


    In any case, keeping everything he had heard and seen in mind, Loimos began to scour the lengthy halls of this library, it was by far thergest inside the city, and Weafewand had a soft spot for books, the undead had counted twenty-four of such buildings, and that was only counting those that were only libraries, you could read books in most public ces here, he was nning on checking those as well.


    One advantage he had was that he couldn''t forget anything, so there really was no need for him to read things in a specific order, he just needed to read everything, so he began with a book that supposedlypiled every known usages of mana, reading through it exceptionally fast as he was reading two page at once, from top to bottom, bottom to top all at once, had he had actual eyes, he would have looked absolutely idiotic.


    Already, one could see that there was a little problem when tackling the vast field that was magic.


    "Ah shit" eximed a young man reading another copy of the same book as Loimos, he was just reading the table of content, but that was enough to give someone a splitting headache, so many categories, sub-categories, sub-categories within sub-categories, pure nightmare fuel.


    Not only was magic a difficult thing to study in any capacity, but theck ofmunication between the various schrs and researchers meant that each subject had multiple interpretations and theories linked to them, sometimes contradicting one another, ideas of the far past shed with newer ones, some of those schrs taking shot at one another,pletely unrted to the matter at hand and blurring everything some more.


    Turning his head and seeing Loimos reading through this mine-field of a book like it was made up of nothing but images made the young man pale, put the book back and ce and leave, his psyche wasn''t strong enough just yet to tackle magic.


    So far, Loimos counted seventeen big categories, although that number depended on how you saw things, it may be more or less, not that it mattered.


    Categories that caught the undead''s hollow sockets were the ones rting to spirits and golems, putting aside spirit calling and spirit binding, there was something called spirit creation.


    Depending on how you created said spirit, it could end up in two different ways, you either made it from nothing but mana and called the job done, or you imbued something into the spirit as well, generally a specific spell.


    That was interesting to Loimos because of golemcraft, which was pretty much the same thing, only that you used materials as a base and then used mana or any other of the many ways to get it to move around and do your bidding.


    Combining spirit creation and golemcraft was considered the greatest way of using those two categories, though that was the very biassed opinion of the cited source, two lines lower and other researchers called this thing absolute bull diarrhoea.


    The undead found this interesting because it appeared like something he would have a rather easy time making, since he could produce a variety of things with his primeval rot and that they would all easily circte his death force, being technically a part of him as well, they could carry on his intelligence and reasoning without any tinkering, or so he assumed.


    Having numbers on your side was always a good thing, undead hordes were always a problem even if only made up of mindless and weak cadavers, by getting better at transforming his primeval rot and learning to better control his death force, he would be able to create himself an army of allies at a moments notice, each of them he would be able to control as he wished due to theirposition.


    This would certainly aid him in getting the guards around the crypt away from it, nothing like an old fashioned undead legion to rile people up and get them to crap their pants.


    In any case, there was still some way before he could do such a thing.

 Chapter 109: Blood Angel

    "May the gods have pity on us, The Death Dealer? She could be in this room right now and we wouldn''t have any idea!" this cry for help fell on unresponsive ears, many people, men and women, of various species and each dressed in rather colourful robes stood around a circr table in a room lit solely by mana lights.


    A state of the art construction, utilising the knowledge of many fields of magic, it was supposedly intruder-proof, providing its upants with perfect safety, imposing an oath of non-aggression on everyone within the room as well, the perfect meeting room possible.


    Yet, none of the people inside appeared rxed in the least, most, if not all of them had taken part in the illicit act of ve-buying, all to forward their various researches or for personal amusement, not a single one of them wasn''t regretting their decisions sourly at the moment.


    The Death Dealer was a big deal, some of them had even paid her for her services before, they were well aware of how verypetent she was, and also how overkill she could be, you could point her a single, rather simple target for her, and instead of simply killing that target, she would also ughter everyone and everything in the same building and surroundings as them.


    When someone took time to shoot birds out of the sky, you knew that they had a serious problem, and judging by the volume of street animals somehow vanishing from existence since she had been confirmed to have showed up, she was having her fun.


    "How are you doing Maelstroff?" one of them, dressed in bright green, asked the horned mage.


    His eyes dim, skin pale and looking generally drained, the holy mage looked at the one that asked the question like he was an idiot.


    "Bad" he shortly responded, shaking his head and forcing the people by his sides to shift their position to avoid getting hit by his horns.


    "The dagger she stabbed me with is a real mage yer, the moment it harmed me, my mana control went out of control, it poisoned my mana, not to mention that she was carving through my spells and destroying them with ease, honestly, I am only alive because I used an item and because she didn''t actually try to stop me, I am certain she could have taken my head right off" Maelstroff wasn''t seeing their odds very brightly, especially when he couldn''t find any solution to his mana poisoning.


    If he were to encounter The Death Dealer again, he would be incapable of using any magic to defend himself, faced with all of this, the other mages around the table sported grim expressions, they couldn''t just hide away and hope for the storm to pass, this assassin wouldn''t just leave them alone.


    "Welp, good luck to you guys" one of them however, didn''t seem very worried, he stood up from his seat and pped his hands together.


    "Where are you going Yriel?"


    "Back home, unlike you guys, I have done nothing that could paint a target on my back, the trade of enved monster and beasts isn''t the same as people, I am in the clear, so I will not remain near any of you and get myself killed, bye bye" Yriel, a mage dressed in an obnoxiously bright yellow robe waved them off and exited the room without any hesitation.


    They all looked at one another, expecting someone toe up with a good idea.


    Soon enough, with no one proposing anything a few other of the mages present left the room, after all, it wasn''t certain that The Death Dealer knew every single person guilty of funnelling money into the ve trade.


    She couldn''t know every single thing.


    "Huh, maybe we could request help from the royal guards?


    The original order may havee from the king, but I doubt he was envisioning one of his nobles to employ the mad dog of the Fin-Limier Assassins, she is a highly wanted criminal, if he can just hold out long enough, we could receive the assistance of Shieldmaster Bough and Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e" Maelstroff, sounding rather lethargic, was actually the first one toe up with an actually good idea.


    "How does shepare to the royal guards however? I haven''t heard of any target she wasn''t capable of ying, no one ever spoke of surviving having a hit ced on them and then being hunted down by The Death Dealer" only lucky bystanders had gotten to witness her at work, though none could recall her face, neither Maelstroff, her identity seemed to be protected by some sort of ability or spell.


    "It is worth the try¡­"


    "Indeed, although Bough is inferior to me in a matter of speed, he is impossible for me to scratch, Pierre-Orn¨¦e, he is definitely stronger than me, I don''t stand a chance"


    "Reall- Wait what?" all of them turned to see the misshapen mass of a darkness with two feet up on the table, munching on some sort of sandwich bursting with ingredients.


    "..." they all looked straight at the assassin, a sinister, yet very smug smile etched on her face as she casually put the sandwich away inside of her cloak.


    "Maybe we could convince you with a higher sum of money?" as if walking on eggshells, one of them made an offer, whilst the holy mage eyed another item hidden around his neck, he had one other of such objects.


    Maelstroff was rather serious concerning his safety after all, but it wasn''t that odd of a personality trait for mages to have, he debated when to use it up until the moment his hands fell off.


    The round table was flipped up in the air, and hacked away until it exploded into a shower of splinters, a few spells were fired but unlike before, The Death Dealer wasn''t aiming to have anyone lead her anywhere, in an instant, limbs were sent iling against the walls and ceiling, heads rolled to the ground and bodies copsed, the entire room painted red.


    The assassin, having yed everyone within reach, took off her cloak andid down in the growing puddle of blood, swinging her arms and legs, a peaceful look on her face as she created what would be called a blood angel on the ground.

 Chapter 110: Wandering Slaughter

    After spending more than a week standing around and reading books at impressive speed, the regr visitors of the library were starting to think that something was weird, whilst the keeper himself was reminded of his first time in a library, when he had used mana reinforcement to maintain himself awake and focused, so as to not waste any second doing something as frivolous as sleeping and learn as much as possible, he had held on for almost a whole month in this manner.


    It warmed his heart seeing that there were still people intent on uncovering the entirety of the magical knowledge, he had been like this once, but he had had no other choice than to settle down when his talent proved to be too little.


    He was exining all of this to a regr of this immense temple of knowledge, they had just pointed out that perhaps it wasn''t judicious to allow someone to do this and endanger their health, but they had instead been treated to the old keeper''s life story, a punishment they were currently cing only below getting kicked in the family jewels.


    He was leaving no openings for them to exit the conversation, much too happy to have gotten someone to spew words to.


    Meanwhile, Loimos hadn''t actually been remaining within the library at all times, the ce was open night and days, allowing him to step out whenever he noticed a stray dog or cat,mit horrendous acts of animal cruelty, known as killing them with his bare hands, grow stronger and rot the bodies to reinforce his understanding of his own power.


    Unfortunately, he had an unseenpetitor in that department, but he was ahead in the rat hunting methods, since he had learnt to mimic smells that the rodents liked, Weafewand was getting cleared of all life than weren''t people, Loimos had also noticed a sudden spike in death force somewhere under the city, a clear sign that multiple people had reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but considering that they had been killed, it wouldn''t be wise to just head there and inhale everything, even if he couldn''t sense anyone else amidst all of those corpses.


    He was going to wait a few more days before reaping that prize he hadn''t earned, for now, he was trying to shape his rot into rats, it was the single organism he had decayed the most, and thus the one he should have the most ease recreating, his first attempts looked more like crude poop effigies than anything.


    Instead of attempting an instant creation, he instead went to carefully crafting each part of the rat, the flesh was the easiest, he could just use his rot for it since the result wouldn''t be an actual whole rat, but an undead version.


    He just needed to make it denser and wrap the whole thing into the fur, which proved to be rather simple to create, the outside portion of living beings, scales, feathers and such came naturally to Loimos, so much so that when he rapidly created some rot, some bits of feathers could sometime be seen sticking out.


    The most difficult part were the bones, it still took him time to manufacture those, and an entire skeletal structure was otherwise more precise than rough bone ws, the entire process of trial and error was taking ce directly inside the undead, where a living''s stomach would normally be, on the outside, he was still just reading a book about the long term effects of reinforcing one''s body with elemental mana.


    The library was rather empty at this time of day, the poor person the keeper had been talking too had left once the story had reached its end, a few people were still around of course, in Weafewand, even without an undead that never slept, it wasn''t unusual for people to be roaming libraries at all hours of both the day and night.


    As the skeleton finished with this book, he moved on to the next one, its title rather uninspired.


    ''Conditions, Rules, Vows, Pledges, Troths, Sacrifice, Waive And All That Rtes''


    Loimos had already encountered the terms of condition and rule in previous books, it was something that supposedly all mages could do once they reached a certain level of mastery, although it wasn''t limited only to mana users, as it suggested, it was an application of a condition or rule upon oneself to get something else in return, it was a ssic for third-rate mages to take up permanent variations of such things to fill in the gap.


    For mages, they first needed to learn to get in touch with the condition element or such, which was actually a thing Loimos had read about leaf and pepper magic, it wasn''t exactly surprising that this was how this worked.


    Apparently, despite being a rather precise and odd element almost no one ever had an affinity for, it was remarkably easy to get a hold of it and then use for whatever purpose, this put into question how this thing worked for people that didn''t use any energies to fight and all, but the book wouldn''t go into such details.


    It was all about the dozens of variations of the basic condition, sacrifice and waive were rather interesting, he would have to try them out.


    "Herm? Oh, yes, they are over there" the undead heard the keeper speaking to someone, pointing them toward a young woman reading a book at a table,pletely absorbed in her readings.


    The undead hadn''t sensed anyone entering the library, despite having no line of sight, he could see the keeper as he spoke, clearly, the person spoke back but he couldn''t hear them in the least.


    It was just like that malformed shadow on the buildingst time, and logic would dictate that it was the same person, he didn''t move from his spot and simply focused on the youngdy that was asked for.


    Not even a second, it didn''t even take a singr second for The Death Dealer to grab her by the hair and then stab her in the throat, mming the target''s face against the table before calmly walking out of the library, under the stupefied gaze of the old book keeper.


    Not even bothering to properly kill her target, already knowing that she would bleed to death on her own.

 Chapter 111: Two Killers, One Lasagna

    "Am I the only one left? Hello?


    Might the gods help me, I am the only member of the council that wasn''t partaking in ve buying?" Yriel spoke aloud to the few assistant mages present, even the assistants had seen a ratherrge decrease in their numbers, but that was mostly because they had the unfortunate habit of remaining close to their boss, making them targets of opportunity for the mad woman.


    A few of the casters that had been ughtered in the underground meeting room had been part of the city council, but only a handful, Yriel hadn''t been aware that ves were somonly shipped into Weafewand, it was honestly disconcerting how little he knew of the trades taking ce in the shadows.


    Now, he was the only figure of authority left in the city, all of the others most certainly dead already, although it was hard to say because corpses had been vanishing, the bodies of those that had been killed in broad daylight had ended up disappearing not long after, meaning that those that had just disappeared might as well have received the same treatment, simply before anyone could confirm their death.


    With The Death Dealer running around and ughtering as she pleased, many were fearful and wanted something done about her, but of course, only Yriel knew who they were dealing with, and thus, only he knew that there was nothing to be done.


    ''And frankly, this is not that bad of a thing¡­'' he found himself rather pleased, the assassin was taking out the trash basically, people Yriel certainly wouldn''t want to associate with himself or the city, The Death Dealer yed them without revealing their crimes, so no one was none the wiser about the whole thing, except for the noble that hired her of course, he would just need to connect the dot.


    But the mage trusted that this unnamed noble would keep his mouth shut, they wouldn''t want it to let it be known that they had acquired the services of the most infamous assassin this continent had to offer, to fulfil an order of the king no less, even if efficient, there were limits that shouldn''t be crossed.


    So all in all, as a man innocent of the crime of owning a ve, and as a councilperson of the city, he was actually pleased with the development, even if she was certainly killing innocents as she went, what worried him was the matter with the bodies.


    The underground meeting room had been thoroughly cleaned of everything possible, the body of a young mage murdered inside of the central library mysteriously disappeared when no one was looking, and now, just as this very instant, an assistant entered the room and whispered something in his ear.


    "What happened to the graveyards?"


    "It might be best if you saw it if your own eyes sir"


    "..."


    "..."


    "This is actually ridiculous! Is it a necromancer? Is one of those corpse fuckers in this city?!" Yriel looked into an empty grave, even the coffins and gravestones were gone, the entirety of the non-guarded portion of the burying grounds had been desecrated, the rest of the dead vited.


    "Were they any attempt to intrude upon the guarded graves?" Yriel asked as he kept on moving from one hole to the other, each of them dug in the same way and with disconcerting precision, what sort of freak of nature could be sopetent at digging up corpses?


    ''Even the dirt that was removed somehow isn''t anywhere around¡­'' he scratched the back of his head.


    "Nothing of the sort sir, we did a check up on the outskirt of the fences but nothing there either" the guarded part of the graveyard was looked over for two simple reasons, the people buried there were powerful mages, so powerful that it was judged that even a novice necromancer would be capable of raising them and ess an undead with magical capabilities remaining.


    And also because it was always a worry whether a mage that had passed would eventually turn into a lich, but for those, they were within an underground mausoleum in the center of the guarded area.


    "I want all focus to be put on our corpse snatcher, the corpse maker is out of our hands, understood?" there wasn''t much Yriel could do right now, he could only give the order and have mages attempt rituals to catch a trail of what he assumed was an aspiring necromancer, or in the best of cases, someone with just a very bizarre passtime.


    ____________


    The duo, who together worked to speed up the cycle of life and death, both ended up finding themselves at dead ends in each of their respective ventures, The Death Dealer knew of one other target residing within Weafewand, knew that this very target hadn''t left the area, but was unable to pinpoint their location.


    Most certainly hiding using an borate array of sorts, probably aiming to remain in seclusion for quite a while, and hopefully emerged when the assassin had decided to move on, but that wasn''t like her, she never left any job unfinished.


    As for Loimos, as the weeks went by, he kept on repeating the same actions until he ran out of books to read, he had moved on to decaying even the corpses of people, even going as far as starting to steal random items simply to get better with his rot.


    But he wasn''t seeing enough improvements to be able to put his n into motion, even if he managed to break into the floating crypt, he would have toe out with his newly acquired ally, that a clear problem, he may not encounter an undead that was particrly powerful, he might even encounter one that lived in death and have to engage inbat instead.


    At the moment however, the two that dealt with the dead in some capacity were standing opposite to one another, a woman and a corpse, having crossed paths doing what they both did best, trying tomit an act of animal cruelty.


    Widely known as absolutely massacring the creature until it reassembledsagna.

 Chapter 112: Deal

    The two of them just looked at each other, then at the unlucky errant canine that had chosen the wrong time to wander into the magical city of Weafewand, another day and perhaps he would have been chosen to be a familiar, he would have been well fed, he would have thrived and lived the best possible life for a mutt like himself.


    s, he instead found himself in an alley, sandwiched in between the worst possible people within a radius of a width that can not be simply measured.


    The Death Dealer tilted her head to the side a slight bit, her dark brown hair following suit with an abnormal dy, her sick yellow-green eyes seemingly glowing as they reflected the dim lighting of the moon.


    A peculiar, but rather telling smile on her face, her mouth barely opened with a slit, no teeth visible, that look meant something precise, or perhaps it was a mere coincidence, like a mix between ''What do we have here?'' and ''You fucked up''.


    Not paying any mind to the awfully bizarre expression, Loimos remained quiet, fairly certain that this was the person he had already noticed in the distance a few times, and whomst he had been graciously cleaning up after.


    The smile disappeared when she brought her neck back straight, pointing at the animal having a panic attack on the floor, gesturing toward the beast with one of her many thin daggers and finally speaking up.


    "Are you gonna eat this or not?" yes, the most prolific assassin, with dozens of contracts offered to her all the time, was asking a mobile putrid skeleton, in the middle of the night, whether or not he was thinking about eating a random, anorexic dog.


    "Do you have no money?" Loimos saw a good opportunity, so he initiated a conversation with her.


    "Nah, nah, I don''t bring money with me, I stash everything at home, shoving every coin and treasures together like a squirrel preparing for harsh times" then she imitated the sounds of a squirrel, it was a convincing one, the dog''s ears perked up.


    "I have found some coinsying around" spoke Loimos, having gathered riches through the cultural practice of tomb raiding.


    "Oh" she understood what he was getting at in a jiffy, kicking the dog into a wall for it was no longer interesting as a future meal.


    This is how, somehow, Loimos managed to get The Death Dealer''s attention, by inviting her to dinner, his smooth talking and experience with psychotic women learned thanks to interacting with One.


    Loimos had been expecting to have to make a great argument with his head detached from his body to convince her that they should have a talk, it was certainly a pleasant surprise that he could subdue her murderous tendencies with food.


    The entirety of the other patrons were looking at them from time to time, rather hard to ignore the filthy masked man and the suspicious woman garbed in all dark that had a tendency to suddenly shout out seemingly random words.


    Her antics were quite something but Loimos couldn''t care less, literally, as she munched down on sausages, meat pieces and whatever else was avable, the undead had found quite a bit of money, and only one of them was eating anyway.


    "Ah, mister corpse, I hadn''t imagined the first person to take me out for dinner would already be dead, but it makes sense now that I think about it" she was even eating the bones, she was sporting some good teeth in there.


    It wasn''t surprising that she could tell that he was an undead, although she had known for a while, since she had actually been around Loimos for a great portion of the carriage drive to Weafewand, witnessing him disposing of the original coachman and ve, she had been nning to do it herself but she firmly believed in firste first served when it came to murder.


    Unless it was other assassins, it gets professional and she takes work very seriously.


    "So, what do you want? Want to put a hit on someone''s head? I can kill a few randommoners for this food, or is this supposed to be an actual date? Do you even have a c-" she rubbed her chin, deep in thought.


    "I wish to see the remaining of the city council, and the entirety of the guards disposed of" Loimos went straight to the point, as per usual, his progress with his own powers wasn''t exactly speedy even with his constant training and refining of his techniques, The Death Dealer had the capabilities to do everything he wanted with her arms tied behind her back, it would be idiotic not to try and use her assistance.


    "All?"


    "All"


    "I don''t think you treating me to dinner will cover this, though¡­" she pulled out a dagger out of nowhere, admiring it and ignoring the gasps of people around.


    "That would definitely be a fun job! It is certain that bystanders will witness the scene, oh, I will have no choice but to silence them, will I? The men, the women and the children too!


    It will be endless ughter for at least a few days, just shing and stabbing, and shing, and stabbing, and hacking, and dismembering, and stabbing, and piercing, and splitting, and burning, and drawing, oh drowning! It is so underrated, when they il around and make bubbles whilst screaming for help! What are those fuckers even saying?


    ''I am under the water please help me?!'', oh, ahahah, aaaah¡­" she breathed out, smacking her lips before looking around, she had stood up on her chair at some point.


    "Oh¡­ I overreacted a little bit" she settled down, the people, all mages in some capacity, had passed out under the effects of her enthusiasm, some were actually choking in their passed out state at this very moment.


    "But anyways, I can''t just go on a rampage, I am a professional assassin, my kills are worth more than double their weight in precious pelf" she said, mostly to convince herself however, she couldn''t allow herself to get sidetracked, she was still on a job, which wasn''t ending with thest target of this city, she had many for targets and leads to explore.


    "I had roamed around the city before you caused a stir, I have been paying attention to life force signatures and their whereabouts the entire time, you have not yed anyone in days, I can only assume that one of your targets is hiding from you, yes?" with everyone around knocked out, he spoke with the pale tongue, the voice that usually inspired dread in those that heard it but The Death Dealer only trembled, in a way that couldn''t be referred to as a one of fear.


    "We''ve got a deal!"

 Chapter 113 Quick Job

    "Ah, I like your words funny bone, read over this contract and sign it if you see no issue, again, I am a professional, don''t listen to people saying that I am a lunatic who only lives for murder and bloodshed!


    I am a pretty girl, and I have never bathed in blood, or hugged decapitated heads, and I have certainly never done a blood angel because I miss the snow!" she overshared as Loimos read over the very simple contract, which was written in blood, the undead was able to tell many things others may not have been capable of.


    The blood she had written this contract with was her own, which wasn''t surprising since every thing she was wearing, as well as the dagger she had swung around also contained traces of her blood, hair and flesh within them.


    Whether it was an act of entricity without meaning, or if it was actually for practicability purposes was hard to tell.


    Seeing nothing wrong with the contract, he signed it, obviously, it wasn''t just a regr piece of parchment, it actually bound the two parties to fulfil their vows, The Death Dealer was positively excited at the moment, how long had it been since she had gotten a job where she was directly supposed to go on a crazy ughter?


    If she went for the guards during the day, she would totally be allowed to ughter every single pedestrian around.


    "Cheers to the uing bloodbath! Let''s start with myst target, what do you know?" she kicked her chair into the distance, shook Loimos''s mushy hand and led the way outside, it was still dark, but still various lights peering through windows to the outside.


    The undead asked her about the target in question, and The Death Dealer gave a detailed description, she hadn''t skipped on her homework, thest mage on her list was a young man practising wind spells and apparently went around with a living proof of his crime, as he had some sort of wolf beastfolk as his familiar, and since it wasn''t a beastfolk of the monstrous sort, it wasn''t allowed in the least to have them as a familiar.


    Life force going underground and then disappearing from the undead''s senses weren''t exactlymon, it had only happened twice in Weafewand, and the first urrence had been interrupted by the assassin, the second one however¡­


    Leading her to the spot right above where the signature had gone invisible, with this knowledge, it didn''t take long for The Death Dealer to discover the way in, with her expertise, she uncovered the secret hatch hidden right behind a potion shop.


    "It''s so much easier when you know where to look, don''t you agree, huh, what''s your name?" the assassin jumped in, going first in a rather tight tunnel, she realised that she hadn''t bothered to ask who she was dealing with.


    "Loimos"


    "Nice name, people call me The Death Dealer, I don''t know why, I don''t fit the description, but they never listen when I tell them my name is Maliah, it''s cute though, much more fitting for an adorable girl like me, who has never done no wrong! Maybe it''s because I always killed them afterward" with a shrug, she kicked open a measly wooden door, shattering the flimsy thing to pieces.


    The mage inside the room was startled, dropping what he was doing instantly as he jumped back like a frightened cat.


    What he had been doing was his familiar, indeed not much of a beast this beastfolk was, more of a folk really.


    "Kill her!" ordering his ordered bedpanion without any hesitation, the mage moved to ce himself behind his familiar whilst charging up a spell, Maliah evaded the leaping wolf-person, letting her crash behind.


    Casually walking toward the mage with off-putting speed, she deflected a sh of wind right back at the mage, who managed to call off his spell before it hit him in the face, lengthening his life by a few seconds before the thin de went through the bottom of his chin and up through the top of his skull.


    His swift disposal broke the link between him and his familiar, who thus dropped the intention of fighting on his behalf and instead tried to escape, bumping right into Loimos, the passageway was much too narrow for her to go by the undead, instead trying to grab him by his left arm to pin him against the wall and make way for her, the mushy sensation of his arm threw her off for quick moment, but not as much as the fact that countless bone spikes suddenly bursted from his forearm, multiple of those piercing her right in the face.


    Loimos had deliberately put his left arm forward, but in this situation, the former familiar hadn''t stopped to analyse his movements and rushed right into a trap.


    "Oh boy, we finished this quick! So we can get to the mass-ughter, as per the contract obviously" Loimos first worked to dpose everything possible and suggested that they waited some time, since the popce was on high alert, and Loimos always preferred to have some element of surprise even if there was no doubt that it would work out well with Maliah aiding him.


    "Shucks"


    "Do you still have money? I got hungry again"


    "I do not"


    She put her hands on her hips, now standing amidst apletely barren room, the musk of recent coitus still hanging in the air, thankfully, the pleasant stench of blood and death was stronger.


    The Death Dealer always felt serene in such an ambiance, but with Loimos standing there, perfectly still since there was no need to feint signs of life, it was a bit hard to rx.


    "Say, who''s the lucky girl?" she pointed at the bloody kiss imprint on his mask. Stay connected through empire


    "A vampire"


    "Wait, it''s actually directed at you? I thought you had just stolen the mask as is, you dirty bone sack, you''re actually a yer! You go around looking like the deadest of the dead, but you don''t hesitate to try and score at every asion, heh?"


    Her words bore no effect, much to her displeasure, Loimos was an awful conversation partner, anytime he said something humorous, it was purely idental and unintended, he was like those people that only spoke of work all day long, except that his job was eradication of life.


    "May I inquire on how you forge your arms and equipment?" though, the simrity in what he had been attempting for a while and the apparent way Maliah created her belongings was hard to miss, he could learn something useful from her, surely.

 Chapter 114 Dealings En Masse

    "Ah crap, is it me or it''s getting even warmer?" a guard in darkish armour expressed his distaste toward the weather.


    The siamese suns had grown brighter, ncing up could earn you a good few seconds ofplete blindness at this point, inside of their suits of armour, the brave defender of the city were getting cooked, a terrible stench of sweat emanating from all of them, even those having taken refuge under shadows couldn''t escape the extreme heat.


    Thankfully, their smell was shared by pretty much everyone, only those remaining inside, in their magically cooled interiors could enjoy themselves without being assaulted by the spheres of sma in the distant sky beyond.


    The people avoideding to the outside for too long, whilst they, the armoured ones had to reinforce their bodies with mana to avoid passing out whilst standing, his vision distorted, one guard brought his hand just above the slits for his eyes on his helm.


    "Hey, why are they closing the gates?" he had already noticed one closing in the distance a few moments ago but hadn''t seen it fit to mention, however, now that the other ones were also closing, he felt like something was off.


    "Are they? We didn''t receive any word of something like this¡­" another one joined in.


    "Well, let''s not just stand around, I''ll go ask-" with this, he jumped off their vantage point over the city, freezing after a single step before hurriedly climbing his way back up.


    No one asked him the reason, they could see it from themselves, to them, it looked like a misshapen mass of dark had crawled out of some deep abyss, making its way toward them, slowly. Experience new tales on empire


    They blinked, it vanished, now standing right beside them.


    "W-"


    "A-"


    Two of them spoke simultaneously, only managing to utter a single sound before the deformed mass burst open, and two arms blurred right through them, an rm rang out throughout the city, one that hadn''t been used ever since it had been put into ce, the people had no idea what it meant exactly, only that they should be afraid, very afraid.


    Walking up to the center of the city, under the shade of the floating crypt as the twin suns loomed right overhead, Maliah was soon surrounded from all sides by guards, some garbed in darker armours, others looking more in, the majority around were holding spears, but some also carried warhammers or maces amongst a variety of other weapons.


    Grinning andughing like a malevolent hyena, The Death Dealer looked around at the guards, their bodies jumping up and eyes growing unsteady as her gazended on each of them, but a voice came from up on a building.


    "Assume formation, feel no fear, no matter how horrific, we have an utter number advantage, trust in yourpanions by your sides!" presumably the leader of the city''s security spoke as he pointed his sword up at the sky, at the same time people in robes started emerging on top of the other buildings and houses, all casting a wide area of effect buff on the guards, and debuff upon her, well, they tried.


    "The spells of weakening don''t work at all on her" a mage by the captain''s side informed him, since she hadn''t interfered in the least with the casting of the spell itself, it meant that either her mana reinforcement was ster or she was wearing something to defended for her against such a spell, the mage would bet that it was a mix of the two.


    "Whatever you do, don''t start casting spells haphazardly, remember the orders, only throw your spells when the guards back off from her" the captain said in a low tone, not at all reminding the entirety of the mages, but he couldn''t help but repeat it, if only to calm his nerves.


    Maliah was looking particrly joyful, very bright, perhaps even cute if it weren''t for her expression shifting between happy girl and devilish banshee every few seconds or so.


    Six guards moved toward her first, two at the front, two from the back and one from each sides, it was a nice change of pace, she rarely had to the asion of killing coordinated groups, always sent on missions on wealthy and powerful targets that had a plethora of guards, but absolutely no team cohesion, some strong ones dropped here and there, never any substance.


    With barely any dy, the six spearmen reached her and thrusted forward, a configuration of attacks that would leave no chance for one to evade all of them, but she did, twisting her body like a boneless contortionist, the spears all failed to even scratch her equipment as he reached within her cloak, pulling out a singr dagger.


    It looked exactly the same as the one she had used previously, putting one feet up on the handle of one the weapons trying to puncture her, she rose herself up, stabbing her de right through the eye and brain of one of the guards, killing him on the spot before doing one of the most gruesomely, unnecessary and shy things ever.


    Cutting the dead man''s head off with surgical precision, putting one hand up on his head and giving it a good spin, stabilising her whole body up on that one hand, stylishly beheading the five other guards in one swoop.


    "Did you see that shit?! Ahahah! Why don''t you attack with more people next time? How many more dumbfucks can I decapitate in one swing?" after pulling up that sort of bloodily shy move, no one was feeling like approaching her.


    A volley of spells came instead, weaving through them, before crashing into the first line of guards, kicking one in spite of him raising his spear defensively, both the wood and his ribs broke apart as the chestte caved in, crushing his organs as he was sent flying back against his fellow.


    ''What the hell is this strength?!'' the guards behind tried to catch the unconscious man but were all thrown to the ground as they saw blood and body parts fly up in the air, The Death Dealer slicing right through their armours like it was all meaningless and frail paper.

 Chapter 115 Monsters

    Using everything he had, the captain of the guards blocked an attack from the dark-cloaked assassin, feeling his body going numb as the rippling force of the strike echoed throughout his entire body, every single bone holding him up feeling utterly jittery.


    ''That''s not normal strength, is she even human?'' the captain had jumped into the fray nearly just as Maliah had knocked down many of his men onto their asses with the corpses of one of their fellow, still, not even trying anything like before, she just began swinging wildly, her movement impossible to follow as she carved her way through the armoured masses, no amount of group battle arts or coordination could help them.


    "Ah, the big fish has finally shown up! Let me peel off those scales!" he attempted to use a sword art, but she spun right around him, killing guards as he went before kicking him in the back of his knee.


    He felt utterly helpless in this situation, only able to throw himself away from the murderous shadow thanks to the intervention of a mage, who shot a mana bullet at the assassin, his reward, receiving his spell right back to his face, blowing it to pieces.


    Stepping away, the captain shouted an order.


    "Everybody, retreat!" contrary to his expectations, The Death Dealer didn''t try anything to stop them, smiling at him in a derisory way, like ''you think you did something there?'', but he didn''t allow her to destabilise him, throwing his sword at her like it was a discus, he rushed forward.


    "Oh, I see, mister is actually a pugilist!" dodging his first few punches, she hid her dagger behind her cloak, putting it away as she put up her own unarmed stance, raising her eyebrows repeatedly, obnoxiously.


    Infusing his body to the brim with mana, his armour cracked as it couldn''t support his unleashed might in spite of having been made with this purpose.


    "Vertex!" he couldn''t help but say aloud, causing the assassin to startughing once more, she liked hearing that word.


    "You better amount to something nameless man! No one is going to leave this city, I''ll fillet them all! I''ll stomp on the newborns on the filthy ground, I''ll gut parents right in front of their children, pull the eyes out and make them choke on it! Watch as they gargle on their own blood after I puncture both their lungs! You hear me you fucking idiot? I am feeling it today!


    I am killing every single person in this city!" diverting one punch, she mmed her elbow onto his nose before pushing him away.


    Just waiting for him to try again, and again, and again.


    "You can surelynd one hit? Half a hit perhaps? A quarter? Maybe you could do something if you stopped hitting like a slug in a salt storm!"


    As the maniacalughter of Maliah seeped into his ears, the captain could only think about one thing.


    ''What is Sir Yriel doing?'' indeed, the captain didn''t fancy his chances very much, despite not having much of a powerful build, the woman before him was simply supernaturally strong, was she concealing her reinforcement immactely even then? He couldn''t believe it, but it had to be true, how could one easily deflect his strikes otherwise, strikes that could send even minotaurs reeling.


    He could concede that perhaps her daggers were perfectioned tools of murder, but he was only going up against her own self right now.


    ''Simply impossible!''


    As the captain fought with everything he had, Yriel was currently standing opposite to Loimos, in the hallway leading up to the meeting room of the council, bodies of many assistants had been covering the ground just recently, but they deteriorated until nothing remained in a mere instant.


    With all of the morepetent forces having gone to intercept Maliah, Yriel was nning on cowardly slip away, knowing very well that he would mean nothing as a variable against The Death Dealer, he knew very well that she didn''t y by the rules he had learned, she was a freak of nature, and only another of such existences could possibly matter in such a fight.


    "Who might you be? I would like to let it be known that a frenzied assassin is within the city as we are speaking¡­" he didn''t know why Maliah had suddenly decided to go for the mass murder route when it shouldn''t have been part of her current mission.


    He tried to reason with Loimos, but it was no use, he dropped what looked like a white fragment and as it hit the ground, the small shard was enveloped in rot, before forming into a swarm of decaying rats.


    If anyone would be capable of escaping the city right now, it would be Yriel, so the undead had intercepted him, sending forth his creations, legitimate undead creatures carrying the undead''s own death force and unbreakable will.


    Yriel tried to raise a wall of earth, seal off the rats and their owner away from him, but he was made to forcefully halt and hesitate.


    "Stop" he couldn''t understand the words spoken with the death tongue, and frankly, Loimos could have said anything to the same effect, already terrified beyond belief by Maliah, it was certain to get him to the full extent.


    One rat broke out from the group, elerating and jumping up on the man''s ankle, before suddenly expanding and bursting into an explosion of ck blood and bone shrapnel.


    The pain jolted the mage back to his full senses.


    ''That thing, it''s eating away at my mana and multiplying?!'' he didn''t recognise the force as death force but he definitely acknowledged the danger, though he missed the blighted blood crawling into the nasty wound he had just received.


    Manifesting earthen spikes, he copsed the floor to stop the other rats from reaching him, preparing another one to aim right at their summoner.


    "Wait!" the undead had punched before the ground gave in beneath his feet, and he was plunging straight at the mage, mming both of his fists onto the mage''s faulty defence, his half-assed reinforcement not holding a candle to the undead''s that had been fully prepared a while ago.


    And his weak mage arms weren''t going to help him either, his back mmed against the ground with the added weight of the skeleton bearing down on him.


    ''I can still get him!'' ignoring the rats that were going to take him apart bit by bit, he focused on trying to take out Loimos, it was only natural to aim for the one responsible for bringing the beasts into existence.


    But it was always best to be calm when casting a spell, and honestly, whilst Yriel may be talented, the very fact that he had remained within Weafewand, the city prodigies were supposed to leave to go to the academy, go study under powerful mages or to be their own legends, it was a proof that even whilst his talent may be good, hecked the mentality to ever amount to something truly important.


    Loimos grabbed one of his thumbs and cracked it like a celery stick,pletely reducing his efforts of spellcasting to nothing as he dropped the mana weaving entirely, allowing Loimos to start whaling on the defenceless mage, punching him in the throat and face until he couldn''t even try to mitigate the damage with mana, the rats began biting and tearing him apart, opening wounds and crawling into them.


    The undead finished the job by stabbing him in the head with his bone ws.


    Now to the main objective.

 Chapter 116 Corpse Betrayal

    Walking through the streets after The Death Dealer had went through them would have been a surreal experience for anyone else, the bodies mutted in seemingly impossible ways, ignoring armours and weapons, cutting them down with the same as she cut through flesh, deep gashes left into the ground and walls, some homes copsed after being supposedly smashed down with nothing but raw force.


    After Loimos went through, the bloody, the sttered organs, the expressions frozen with horror as death stared them right in the eyes, all of this disappeared without a trace, even the death force in the air vanished, leaving a ghost town in his wake, nothing but ruins without habitants, without life.


    Maliah was still hard at work, or rather, having lots of fun somewhere else in the city, killing everyone in such a popted city wasn''t an easy feat, and she was taking her time with some of her victims as well, their screams of suffering andst howls could be heard in the distance further away.


    The undead soon arrived in the center of Weafewand, this ce wasn''t filled with as much corpses as one might have expected, but there were still plenty of heart-wrenching sights, especially this one man that had clearly been slowly taken apart, it was like breaking down a crossbow into its many parts, but with a living person.


    Clearly, the captain had to have been rather interesting to receive such noble treatment from The Death Dealer, his remains were soon washed away by the unrelenting tide of rot Loimos headed, it really was a boon to have gotten her assistance for the skeleton.


    He would be able to gain much power in many departments, the sheer amount of death force would prove substantial on its own, on top of this, she alone would take full credit for whatever happened there, the living would have no idea of the truth of this event, the indeed would be able to proceed as if nothing happened.


    The floating crypt wasn''t looking as pristine as it used to, some bodies had clearly been thrown directly against its surface, and somehow, it had received shes and other blows despite being so high up.


    Heading for the spots were guards had been overlooking the object, it didn''t take too long for Loimos to find the various arrays and circles used to maintain this thing afloat, roughly breaking the very surface those were drawn and ced upon, the sphere began to lower itself, like invisible chains holding it up were being snapped one by one.


    Touching the ground, the sphere didn''t roll in the least, he approached it, manifesting rot in the shape tendrils ending with monstrous-like flowers of rot, like hoses, they showered a part of the outside in ck blood for minutes on end, the material itself was holding on well, but the various runes and sigils inscribed on its surface saw their shapes altered ever so slightly, ruining the carefully constructed prison.


    The creators had made the mistake of linking all of the parts together, so as to achieve a greater result more easily, but this meant that the slightest of disturbances would affect the integrity of the seal in its totality.


    Like an egg, the sphere cracked and from there, Loimos could easily punch his way in, although impressive, the sphere wasn''t enormous, and the structure trapped within was even smaller, curiously, what little of this ce remained was constructed out of colourful y, much in opposition to what the undead had been made to traverse before.


    Most importantly however, there were two undeads in there, one was dressed in tattered robes, appearing like a dried corpse with bright eyes, a draugr that Loimos could almost with certainty, link to one of the king''s advisors, whilst the other¡­


    Pale beyond belief, a look of sickness in his eyes, barely any hair remaining on his decrepit head, somewhat exaggerated facial features and overly wide shoulders, with two sharp fangs protruding, Loimos could tell that this was a vampire sharing blood with Nosferatu, this onecking some of the other bodily features of the lord however, marking him as a rather weak vampire, perhaps even a dhampir or ancient thrall that had gotten lucky maybe.


    The two other dead bodies stopped what they were doing, seemingly taken aback by his entrance, more surprised by Loimos than the fall of the crypt, but it was no matter, the draugr was hiding behind a barrier he had manifested, the vampire battering his fists against it, but unable to break the barrier as the mage constantly repaired it, seemingly never running out of mana.


    Letting loose of his concealed death force, he said one thing in thenguage of the dead:


    "Artencil" he spoke the name of who he believed the Draugr was, the mage reacted with a nod, the vampire seemed confused.


    Loimos''s hollow sockets brightened with the dark purple glow, the light peering through the minuscule holes of the eyes and various cracks now adorning it.


    Without hesitation, a pulsing tide of rot struck the vampire, pushing him right against the y wall, in response, he smashed his fist down on the wall behind him, freeing himself as he bit into his wrist, controlling his blood to stop the rot.


    Not showing reactions as Loimos directed a few more words his way, clearly, this vampire couldn''t understand a lick of death tongue, and had been attacking an advisor of the king, clearly, this man right there was no undead, he lived in death.


    And he dared do so in the presence of the pure undead.


    Still, even if weak, he was a still carrying the foetid blood of Nosferatu, the mightiest vampire lord, using his blood to force an opening through the rot, the treacherous corpsended a punch squarely in Loimos''s chest, lifting him off the ground.


    Indeed, even this betrayer, armed with the gravelords blood, hit harder than that orc from back then.


    Obviously unfazed, Loimos wrapped his legs around the arm that struck him and leaned forward so much that it seemed his back had broken, striking the vampire straight to the face with his spiked left hand.


    Pushing the skeleton away, the two cadavers steadied themselves for round two.

 Chapter 117 Just

    Sending forth a blood de, the vampire once again tried to close the distance, using his death reinforced bone ws, Loimos cut right through the blood attack, continuing his path toward the one who lives in death, who grabbed the skeleton''s wrist, effectively stopping the attack.


    Loimos followed with another punch, which the vampire also grabbed, but it was the left hand, bursting with bone spikes, now, the traitor couldn''t let go of it, reacting like a living at the sight of the gruesome injury, Loimos had plenty of time to repeatedly kick him in the guts, retracting his spikes, the skeleton allowed the vampire to be thrown back, ending up ankle deep in a wide puddle of ck blood, which quickly began wrapping up around his legs.


    Curiously, the corrosive nature of the blighted blood was utterly absent, Loimos focusing everything on it being durable enough to hold the vampire in ce, it was a sess, he had to bend down and try to use his hands to free himself, there was no point in him utilising his vampiric blood powers.


    Loimos was able to tell when he deflected that first sh and by observing his opponents movements, due to being a disgrace to undead kind, his vampiric powers were pitifully weak, this one was only amounting to anything because it was the blood of Nosferatu that had transformed him, the foetid blood was more potent than the others to begin with, and the special properties of this vampire kind were easily essible even to the weakest.


    Marching through his ck blood without being slowed down in the least, Loimos took hold of one of the vampire''s arms, getting him into an armlock, preventing him from freeing his legs, grasping the arm strongly, the skeleton wasn''t nning on stopping there, twisting the limb in horrendous ways until it started to emit sick cracking noises.


    "Wait!


    Hold on a second!" finally, the betrayer was considering speaking up, though that didn''t even slow down Loimos, ripping his right arm, sending a torrent of blood out of the wound, the fool couldn''t even prevent himself from bleeding, truly an embarrassment, he could consider himself lucky that it was Loimos that showed up and not Nosferatu, he would been made to know that being so pitiful was considered a direct insult to the man himself.


    "You fucker!" despite not feeling pain, the vampire looked like he was suffering, clearly under the false impression that this sort of injury was actually something to worry about.


    "I told you to hold for a second! I am a damned vampire you lowly undead! Listen to what I have to say!" Loimos grabbed his other arm, stretching it out.


    The vampire had toe to terms with the fact that the skeleton wasn''t giving a single shit about what he had to say, but he couldn''t. Experience tales with empire


    "I''ll tell you everything I kno-" Loimos, wielded the vampire''s teared off arm as a club, broke his other arm at the elbow, continuously hammering it without rest until he finally pulled the whole thing off, walking in front of the vampire whilst holding up both of his arms.


    Decaying both of the limbs in front of his eyes before turning to the Draugr, who seemed to be struggling to even stand at the moment.


    "Artencil, could that one bear any information you are not aware of?" asking the Draugr in a tongue the vampire couldn''t understand, Artencil was another advisor of the undead king, not a powerhouse, but a schr, in charge of settings up arrays outside of battle and creating what Faraday had likened to siege weapons, he had even taken a pledge to forbid himself the learning of offensive spells so as to empower the rest, all to do his job even more efficiently.


    But even then, the treacherous vampire had failed to defeat the Draugr, although, Loimos was well aware that the timeline of events was a bit strange, Weafewand was a longstanding city, and the seal epassing the crypt had to have been just as old as the city, at the very least.


    But that would mean that the one that lives in death and Artencil had been struck there for years upon years, maybe even centuries and longer, it seemed unlikely for a corpse that thought itself alive to hold out for so long, he reacted adversely to being harmed after all, this fool could never handle so much time passing.


    "Just one that thought it judicious to follow in Sun-Walker''s footsteps" the vampire couldn''t understand any of what was being said, but he felt like it wasn''t anything in his favour, beginning to panic, he thrashed around, doing his best to break free of the hold of the ck blood, but by now, the vile liquid had already reached up to his waist and solidified its grip, simultaneously durable and stretchy, there was no way for the vampire to hope to escape its grasp.


    Especially after letting most of his blood flow out of his body, he was weakened.


    Having received an answer from the ancient undead, Loimos revealed his bone ws once more, stabbing them through the vampire''s eyes and injecting a continuous stream of ck blood into his body, this time, the excessively corrosive kind.


    Reducing his body to mush was enough to get rid of one of such undeads, decaying what remained and absorbing what little death force he possessed sealed the deal for certain.


    Loimos moved up to the draugr and exined his presence here.


    "Are we nearing our grand return?" seemingly unable to stand up at the moment, Artencil spoke up.


    "We are" Loimos confirmed.


    "This crypt we are in, it is of my own invention, and so was the seal on the outside, the ce we are currently in is actually deep underground, the specificity aren''t easy nor simple to exin, however, you could say that the inside of the crypt was paralysed, it is like the time of I and that vampire had been stopped, though it really was just that we were put in something like aa, unlike him however, I am well aware that a long time as passed" exined the Draugr, finally managed to stand on his legs.


    "I have already met with Faraday and Slotriig, the seal of the former is on its way to be broken, Irmandos fell victim to life" Loimos gave a quick overview of where they currently stood.


    "I am currently weakened, and wouldn''t be of much use either way, but I shall begin to amass troops for our king, destroy the seal entirely after youe out, this will ensure that no other will be able to use it to travel here" dusting his tattered robes, Artencil suddenly seemed much more focused, certainly feeling invigorated at the prospect of a return of the king.


    Loimos didn''t respond and instead executed the demand, Artencil may not be a powerful undead, but he was an undead with history, if he said that he could gather troops, then it wasn''t to be doubted.


    The skeleton stepped out of the seal, and as instructed, decayed the entire thing, finding no trace of the y structure he had been in moments ago.


    Now, what was the joyful mass murderer up to?

 Chapter 118 Promise To Kill

    Falling to the ground, a guard tried to crawl away, stopped right in his track as what looked liked the remains of an organ sttered right in front of his eye, soon followed by a boot that came down upon the lost body part, twisting her feet as her weight bore down in it, a stray stream of blood hit the guard right in the face.


    "Get up already you moron!" another guard suddenly showed up, holding nothing but a shield, not seeing the point in carrying anything else when he couldn''t hope to hit the danger scouring the city anyways.


    At the moment, the guards and The Death Dealer were standing inside of a house, which had received a new paint and severely new decorations just recently, courtesy of a nice and certainly not scarydy.


    The crawling guard rolled away from the murderous woman, through the remnants of the home owners, up until he reached the side of his colleague, the assassin not making a single move and just looking at the scene with one of her terrifyingly, precisely telling smiles.


    A piece of furniture slightly shifted in position next to the assassin, alongside the movement, a strident cry, very much displeasing to the ears.


    "Wah Wah Wah! Is that all you can say?" she reached for it.


    "Wait! Don-" the shield bearing guard tried to reason with her, but instead was struck with something, aimed perfectly at the center of his shield, exploding into a fine red must on impact, and finally putting an end to the annoying sound.


    It took the two guards a second to realise what had just happened, or rather, it took them a second to ept that it had just happened, plenty enough for Maliah to appear behind them and stab them each in their spines.


    Dragging them outside by their feet, for she could tell that those two were thest people still alive within the city, it had taken her much too short of a time to cut down through an entire poption of people, but after all, apart from that captain guard fellow, none had demonstrated anything worthy of attention, this city really was just the starting point for mages, so it only had beginners and failures roaming its streets.


    She shrugged her shoulders and hoisted the two paralysed fellows up on poles, took twenty steps back, and pulled out a bow and arrows from behind her cloak, she took aim and began to kill some time with some live targets.


    "Ouh, that was your spleen right there" shemented as Loimos approached her, the sound of destruction ringing in the background as he showed up.


    "Ah, Loimos, I don''t know what you wanted to do with everyone dead, but it was a lot of fun, my clients never bother to help me usually!


    Like, just because I am the greatest assassin and barely a few people can challenge me, it''s a good reason to leave me by my lonesome?" she put her hands up against her cheeks, probably trying to emte a cute pose, but instead giving a good idea of what an eldritch horror might look like when possessing a human.


    Loimos couldn''t possibly see a problem with this, and instead pulled something out of his pocket, alongside a hefty amount of salt, somehow, after getting thrown around a whole bunch, he was still packed with salt.


    Maliah looked at it with an eyebrow raised, the distant sound of a building copsing and a pained groan from the un-spleened fellow right there didn''t disturb either of them.


    "Hold on, but we already agreed for the contract so¡­" she pped her chest with her hand.


    "Is this a gift?" she was vibrating in ce, looking like she just got proposed to. Stay connected through empire


    "A present" Loimos shoved it in her hands.


    "It will surelye in handy one day" he added, The Death Dealer putting it away under the cover of her cloak.


    "It''s just that, no one ever gave me a gift, not even my parents, just because we were ''poor'' and because I had dozens of siblings, I swear, some people were just raised wrong, I waspletely justified to burn them all in the shed they called a house, I mean, why breed like rabbits when there is barely enough space for the two of you already?


    Just idiotic, I did a favour to the world to not allow those low-lives from spreading their legacies any further" exining herself to Loimos, who was just absorbing information and nothing else, only stopping when what was causing the distant demolition came into sight.


    Nothing but a mass of pure rot, crafted from the many corpses just lying around, appearing like a giant snail from afar, its shell, the ruins of buildings and habitations in the process of being consumed into this giant of putrefaction.


    "You know, I always try my best to maintain the anonymity of my clients, but I will have a hard time convincing the higher-ups that it was all me that erased this entire city from existence" Maliah scratched her chin, but then shrugged.


    "Not like they can prove otherwise, you were pretty fun for an emotionless corpse, let''s meet and kill again" and just like that, shepletely disappeared, the skeleton had no clue where she had gone to, but it didn''t really matter.


    Despite moving awfully slowly, the rot snail''s size allowed it to cover a lot of ground, taking in everything it could until nothing but a patch of dry dirt surrounded by vibrant green grass remained as the remaining testament to Weafewand''s presence upon this ground.


    The next location he was heading for was Muho Chitai, a city situated in another country entirely, Tochi, where the swordsman wielding one-edged de were said to originate, a ce said to not inhabit many mages and more martial artists utilisingplex and difficult battle arts.


    Whilst technically closer than thest city, Bourgliotte, it wasn''t by much, the travel to this ce would be long, incredibly long and since Loimos would travel through the quickest path, he would encounter some environmental hazards and go through actually dangerous areas, the safe roads proper for transporting goods would soon be a distant memory.

 Chapter 119 Three Unwanteds

    "Pierre-Orn¨¦e, Bough, good to see you two back, I already have a new job for the two of you" Agilulf Wanneck, King Of Tamaris weed his two closest guards himself, pping his hands and producing a metallic clink from his fingers were covered with golden rings, adorned with precious minerals and gems.


    His long beard swayed as a strong breeze blew through the gardens situated all across his pce.


    The two warriors stayed silent and listened to his next words, but instead of speaking up, their lord walked past them, signalling for them to follow, walking through the immense corridors of the royal castle, built sorge with the express purpose of being capable of housing all sort of species, a sign of respect on Wanneck''s side.


    It was also rather useful considering the size of his shield carrying personal guard, walking behind their king, it didn''t take too long for the two of them to realise where they were headed.


    Soon enough, they found themselves in front of an open room, evenrger than the king''s throne room, covered and filled with magical contraptions to aid in the matters taking ce here.


    "My Lord, how many are you going to summon today?" asked the halbardier, still not feeling like using the assistance of unwanteds to be a good use of their resources.


    Guards and soldiers could be trained as groups and units, achieving sufficient results for a fraction of the cost, whilst an unwanted presence could be nothing more than a regr person, certainly capable of achieving great things, but just as everyone else, it wasn''t worth spending so many precious materials and botherpetent mages for the rarity of an unwanteding with a useful ability.


    "Is this¡­?" Bough was more interested by one of the mages that were going to work on the imminent summoning.


    "Pierre-Orn¨¦e, we will summon two of them, a third, naturally summoned one was already fetched, it''s this guy with the roundish sses in the corner" the king first responded to him before turning to Bough.


    Truthfully, the halbardier was also quite surprised seeing that mage here, but the money of his lord came before his own personal surprise.


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    "I thought Rosemary never agreed to work for anyone" the shieldmaster trembled, Wanneck raised his hand up.


    "What can I say, I just went to her myself and asked her nicely, and offered to provide some ressources for her students, how you demand things is very important, you can''t just waltz in on anyone and make orders just because you are the head of a country"ughed the old king.


    ''You absolutely can''


    ''Isn''t that a perk of the job?''


    ''That old man is pretty cool''


    His two guards, and the unwanted that was already present here, albeit against his will, all had their thoughts on the king''s wise words.


    With a mage of Rosemary''s calibre participating in the summoning ritual, it was virtually impossible for it to fail, the two unwanteds the king wanted would be summoned without any problem.


    "Everyone is ready? Those that aren''t participating, do not move from where you stand, and could someone close the door?" the red mage gave her instruction, once everything was put in ce, she brought her hands together and didn''t skip anything, activating the various portions of the ritual on her own, the other mages present with her only there to funnel mana into the grand spell.


    Rosemary''s mana control was well enough for her to handle to the rest on her own, it was like all mana bent to her will, the main circle around which all of them were surrounding soon lit up with a white and light purplish light.


    From there, the room was drowned entirely with the two shines, forcing everyone to shield their eyes for the next minute or so, until it slowly began to die down, revealing two new people sprawled on the ground, looking terribly hungover.


    The king would have liked to wee them but they didn''t seem very aware of anything at the moment, so instead, he asked for people''s opinions on his two new recruits.


    "From what I can see, each of their mana aspects are rather good, some training should prove rather fruitful in that aspect" Rosemary started, focusing a bit and it turns out that she could discern one''s energy aspects all on her own.


    "The girl seems athletic enough, the boy is not too shabby either¡­" Pierre-Orn¨¦e was pleasantly surprised, they didn''t seem like failures, yet.


    "Toby, show them what you can do" the king spoke to the third unwanted.


    "Ah, certainly sir¡­" clearly feeling a bit intoxicated by the strong presence in the room, he just walked up closer to the king, looked at the two newly arrived unwanteds.


    "The blond boy has an affinity for light magic, the girl, well, she seems to have an affinity for the four elements, hum, fire, wind, water and earth" he recited, not actually certain if the four elements he was referring to applied to this world.


    "Toby here is a rarity, he has special system functions, let me tell you, our fortune is good with unwanteds, I must have been a saint in a past life" mused Agilulf Wanneck, being the only oneughing.


    "Miss Rosemary, my royal mages, you are all dismissed, that is all I have to ask of you today" he bid his goodbyes to all of them, until only him, his two guards and the unwanteds remained in the room, two of them still very much lethargic.


    "Since our two new friends are out of it at the moment¡­ Toby, those two are Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough, respectively known as Halbardier and Shieldmaster, they will be the ones looking over you and showing you the ropes of enacting violence in the name of justice, but mostly my name, don''t be intimidated child, be afraid instead!" the king smiled and simply left the room, wishing for them to get along.


    Toby didn''t try to meet the gaze of either of the two guards.


    "Well then, have you ever swung a sword or any weapon like it?" Pierre-Orn¨¦e and bough could only focus on their new task.


    At least, they all seemed to have some form of talent or special abilities.

 Chapter 120 Physical Exercise

    "Alright kids, the great majority of you look like walking from one ssroom to another is the greatest exercise you perform at any given time, this is not good" back to her students, Rosemary was standing on one of the many outside portions of the academy, where one could breath fresh air, smell the flowers, and slowly die of heat exposure.


    Everyone except her looked like they had ran a marathon by sprinting the entire time, but no, they had just stood outside for too long, she had really brought them out at noon as well, either a machiavellian ploy on her part, or perhaps because she couldn''t tell the difference between the cold inside and zing volcano that was the outside.


    "Listen well, I know most mages either look like they could roll off the a slope or like dried branches, but that doesn''t mean it is ideal, it is far from ideal in fact, a stronger body can inhabit stronger mana, but that is not all, not being built like a wimp also ensure that you''ll die with more difficulty, you!" she suddenly pointed at one of the few students with a good build.


    He looked around, and now being certain that she was talking to him, he advanced from the ground with certain hesitation.


    "Why are you scared? Listen, youe from a lineage of knights, right?"


    "Yes Ma''am" he responded with a strong nod.


    "You have learned hand to handbat?"


    "Yes Ma''am" he repeated the same exact movement.


    "Alright then,e at me and show your ssmates how to fight" he paled instantly, breathing in and out, he looked back at his fellows, they offered no support to him.


    Rubbing his sweat covered forehead, he took position and ignited every fiber he possibly could manage with mana, took one step forward, his posture was nearly perfect, clearly showing that he had been diligent in his training from a young age, all of this just to instantly eat dirt.


    "See? He is fine because he had the correct response to getting mugged right in the face and a well-trained body to withstand the shock" Rosemary calmly exined, even though the boy was not getting up,ying face first on the grass.


    Ignoring that fact, their teacher continued on exining her point.


    "Which is why we will begin some daily physical exercises, as well as some sparring and perhaps some of you could pick up a weapon, although with rigorous training in both the body and magical field, your own body will be a rather powerful weapon in its own rights" she instructed them to begin with running someps for now, just to check who had some good stamina and such.


    "Are you alright?" Milo asked the fellow of knightly descent, checking if he wasn''t dead from blunt force trauma.


    "No" he simply replied, his voice muffled by the dirt and greenery.


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    "She pped me, pped me so hard, one p, just one, and both my knight and mage training failed to do anything, it''s like getting kicked in my parts, but on a fundamental level, my only wish is to be one with the grass now¡­" a bit over dramatic but Milo understood the sentiment in a sense.


    "Come on, Miss Rosemary said that she would hit anyone who doesn''t do the exercise" lied Milo, but since this fellow had been having an existential crisis, he hadn''t been listening at all and believed it instantly.


    Jumping to his feet and taking off running toward the rest of the group to ask what the exercise was even about.


    As expected, most of the ssgged behind a few people, three in fact, the boy that had been pped in front of everybody as an example, and the two who had spent most of their childhoods on the farm, Milo and Helena, the rest had spent most of their times practicing magic and such.


    Rosemary covered her face with one hand, honestly baffled that anyone could be so unathletic, as she thought of the time that it would take to take so many kids into shape, someone walked up to her side.


    "Headmaster, what brings you out into the sunlight? Going for a walk after lunch?" she asked the old man whose back was arched beyond what was healthy, and whose beard dragged on the ground as he moved in the help of an exquisite staff.


    "Oh, Rosemary, already unpleasant on such a sunny day? I simply wanted to check on your students, as venomous as you are, you always have the best youths" speaking like a kind elder, he watched the running students for a few seconds.


    "Those two¡­"


    "Milo and Helena" Rosemary rified.


    "Hmm, ah yes, the boy is the one with the odd affinity, right?" he spoke in a low tone.


    ''The geezer knows more than he is letting on'' Rosemary rolled her eyes at the foolish antics of the old fossil, he always did this, every time there was something the teachers weren''t aware of, he would just show up, act all mysterious and then not borate even when asked about it.


    "You are also teaching the twelve talent holders in parallel, how are they?" the headmaster switched the subject as per usual.


    "They are doing very well, they were nurtured even beforeing here, I don''t have many gaps to fill with them, what of the elemental champions headmaster?" not really interested in discussing anything with him, Rosemary kept on overlooking her students.


    "Oh, they are doing-"


    "Headmaster, what the hell are you doing here? You never care for anything that happens, even when students get injured, you don''t show up, you are only headmaster in name, just a figurehead that nobody likes, every teacher let it be known that you are unlikable right in your face, stop trying to act all nice and get to the point, I am in ss, working, you know what that means?"


    "Oh, Rosemary, still as insulting as ever! Always good to know you are in good health, but for once, I really just wanted to see the students, our glorious king is preparing for a war as per the instructions of Quideos Audit, these youth will certainly be soldiers soon"


    "You and I will have to die before those kids step foot on an actual battlefield" she responded tly, prompting the headmaster to get the hint and slither back to his dimly lit office.

 Chapter 121 Softhearted Lunacy

    "Aplete tragedy! Oh people, my friends! Not a single one, not even one, not even half of one! None of the heroes of yore I have visited in their tombs answered my call for help, or worse, they had answered the call from beyond instead!


    Argh, is it too much to ask for a hero worthy of their title?!" a certain raving lunatic of a prophet was currently singing hisments inside of a tavern, where he had stopped whilst on his way back to visit the king of Tamaris.


    "Can you believe this, heroes entombed in personal graves, their coffins exquisitely carved and frescoes of their supposedly great deeds painted upon the walls, won''t even bother to rise from the dead to fight again, absolute bums I am telling you!" by this point, no one was really listening to him any longer.


    Except for the person that was sitting across from him, who wasn''t really appreciating him going into rants and chants in the middle of a discussion.


    "Quideos! Sit back down for goodness sakes, I only agreed to meet up because we used to be good friends, just go to the point, please" it was a fairly young-looking woman, dressed in pristine white robes with hints of a booming green, a golden ne around her neck depicting a some sort of nt with a face, staring straight ahead right at Quideos.


    "Used to?" the madman settled down and suddenly looked very sad.


    "I can''t believe it, alright, we are still friends, you are just a bit unhinged now, don''t get depressed and exin" she urged him, rubbing both her temples.


    "Oh my, thanks Jo, you know, it''s a shame we don''t speak more often, you are like the sister I never had, which is to say a lot because I never had much familial bonds, despite my best efforts to connect with parents-" he fiddled with his fingers.


    "Quideos"


    "Ah yes, my bad, as an archbishop of Phanes, you havemand over many pdins and clerics alike, and I was hoping you could give a hand to the death hunters in hunting the undead" he finally began to exin why he had asked for her to show up.


    "Quideos, we already do this and you know it, it isn''t like you to dance around the point you want to make, is it about yourtest vision?


    I have gotten echoes of it, listen, I know you arepetent, but with your recent streaks of madness and false revtions, few people are willing to believe anything you say, I can''t just move so many people on ount of your vision, none of my peers believe in you anymore" she exined, seeing him grown sadder and sadder as she spoke, until he looked like a little puppy.


    "Don''t make those eyes at me- Urgh, that''s their opinion, I know you well, I can tell that you aren''t having a delirious episode, even if you consistently look insane, exin the details you can, I''ll make sure to try something to help, but don''t get your hopes up!


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    Unless something undeniably undead rted happens, I can''t take great actions" she made herself clear, but all her seriousness couldn''t even budge whatever was going on inside Audit''s head.


    "Jo, listen closely, I haven''t revealed everything, the amount of information I can share depends on who I am revealing it to, and as you know it, information that I can''t reveal to someone, can''t be revealed by someone else, the rules are set in stone, but, I know that something big is going to happen in multiple ces, however, with there is hardly anything that I can reveal, ancient undeads are rising from their tombs, the gravelords of yore will go to war once more, risen from their sleep by the foil of a man fallen from grace-" he stopped for a few moments, struggling with finding the right words to express the most he could.


    His senses assaulted by countless images and visions of the future, some clear, some iprehensible, he had to pick wisely else he could send Jo on the wrong track entirely.


    "Alright- Alright, the heart of death is unknowingly guarded in Bourgliotte, if you must take any action, it is to ce more people there, ah, how terrible this future would be¡­" he shuddered, paling and growing smaller in his seat, his lips sealed from any further revtions for now.


    Quideos and Jo stared at one another, the prophet looking spent and the archbishop quizzical, she spoke up.


    "So, a veritable army of the dead is set to rise in the near future? Far future? You can''t tell? But the problem is that few are willing to believe in that, otherwise, we might be able to rally and unite against the only great undead we know the location of¡­"


    "Gravelord" corrected Quideos.


    "That is a term that hasn''t been used since forever, I only ever saw it in decrepit old books and archives, times so far back it might as well be fiction as no one can truly attest to them, but if the impaler is one of those ''gravelords'', then don''t you think it would be beneficial if we struck him down before everything starts going poorly?" Jo shook her head, knowing that there was already a reason why no one had bothered even attempting to dislodge the impaler despite him encroaching on the territory of multiple kingdoms.


    It simply wasn''t worth it, and it wasn''t going to be Quideos''s vision, or Jo''s word that would change anything about it.


    "If I must bepletely transparent, I don''t believe it can be prevented, so if anything, I would want you to make sure the greatest forces of lifekind don''t get taken out, with your status, I am certain that you could do it, somehow¡­"


    "Gather and maintain our best assets for what is toe huh?" the archbishop stood up from her seat, ready to go back to her church and begin the preparations.


    "Jo? It was pretty nice seeing you again, by the way, can Ie by the church?"


    "Of course you can Quideos, no one is going to stop you, it was good seeing you as well, you seem to have gotten better since yourst mad ramblings, be careful" she bid her goodbyes to him.


    "Oh, if only convincing the king of Starkefolten was as easy as that¡­" heined in a low tone, reinforcing the security of Bourgliotte would certainly be much simpler if the big man in charge of the country was willing to hear him out.

 Chapter 122 Snowy Mountains

    "Well, well! A lone traveller, how atypical, empty your pockets, whatever is inside shall be the price you pay for your life" it went without saying, but Loimos had been approached with such demands a whole lot more ever since he had begun entering the mountain range surrounding Tamaris, the poption of bandits and other low-lives varmints was rather dense, in two ways actually.


    Ranging from iprehensible bber to rather sophisticated demands such as the one that was in the process of happening, the diversity in highway folks poption was surprising, they were much like goblins, everywhere, adaptive, group-oriented, generallycking in advanced thought process and not exactly pleasant to look at.


    "Did you not hear him? Give us your valuables, lone wanderer!"


    "Now that I think about it, it really is very umon for people to be alone in this part¡­"


    "He is carrying a sword too"


    "And that mask is a bit creepy"


    "Howe no one else intercepted him before us anyways? They would have jumped on a solitary traveller"


    The well-spoken bandits started looking at one another, and then back at Loimos, who had taken a step forward when they weren''t paying attention.


    "I must admit, maybe we were a bit too impetuous, now that we are up-close, this fellow looks very much unpleasant as a robbing victim" their leader stepped back and the others followed, they all sunk down into the ground, nearly down to their knees as the ck blood bubbled.


    The refined bandits didn''t even have time given to them to try and bargain as the blighted liquid engulfed them all, silencing and digesting them in little time.


    That was the big mistake of those bandits, they always tried threats and intimidation first, they would have much more sess if they shot their targets in the legs, stole everything and just killed them.


    Being civilised was their mistake, also ack of proper spatial awareness, leaving a big hole in the middle of the way, Loimos walked past it and went on his way, the road, which could barely be referred as such, was leading him upwards as he would have to traverse the sharp and tall mountains serving as a natural defence for the country.


    From there on out, he shouldn''t encounter any more bandits, for this ce was home to some monsters, vindictively territorial ones at that, the sort that you could anger without meaning to, or fail to provoke even by trying, rather unpredictable lot.


    Oddly enough, despite the deathly heat still bearing down upon the soil below, Loimos soon found himself with snow piling on his shoulders, and waist down in powdered snow, good thing he had no eyes and couldn''t be blinded, the reflections of the sun were so bad, it could actually be considered as an of pure evil.


    Unfettered by such a mundane thing as thermal shock, Loimos continued on his way, simultaneously freezing and being warmed up until he managed to find a spot that wasn''t nearly as flooded with snow, or rather, an area where the snow wasn''t so soft, not losing track of the direction he was supposed to go in, he came across many caverns on the sides of high portions of the mountains, sharp rock flying up into the sky, piercing and dividing the clouds far in the distance.


    More importantly, the caves were inhabited, small masses of white fur came running out with much hastiness after one of them shouted out upon noticing Loimos, who dressed in ck, stood out a pretty big deal.


    Screaming and hollering in one anothers faces, the small creatures started throwing rocks at Loimos, with good uracy but reprehensibly low strength, even when hit straight in the face, his head barely moved in response.


    He rose a wall of soft rot in front of him, the singr force of one rock was poor, but there were a lot more rocksing, expanding his rot forward, he immersed himself in and using the speed boost moving through his own creation granted him, he soon found himself in front of one of the small ball of fluff.


    Grabbing it by it heads and popping it like a rotten orange, with his enhanced strength from much murder, absorbing of death force and decaying of many things, it was awfully simple to kill these feeble creatures, although it turns they packed quite the weight for their size, stacking up on much fat.


    After crushing one skull, stomping on one and exploding another with a kick to the stomach, the hairy horde scattered back in the caves, probably not finding this activity worth it, however, going into the caverns wasn''t the wisest move, the undead easily sealed the entrance off with some rot and then unleashed miasma directly inside, suffocating them all to them all the while continued on walking forward.


    But of course, the screams of the little one''s attracted other dwellers of the snowy mountain, another hairy creature decided to show up, this one had its ugly maw visible for all to see, which was a dark blue colour and possessing an oversized nose, probably to counteract the fact that air was scarce up there, not brawny but thin and with long arms that it used much like a gori would.


    Its stomach area was simrly uncovered of fur and hollowed out, letting out a howl, Loimos scanned the surroundings for more like this guy, but he turned out to be all by himself, a lonely monkey man of sorts. Explore more adventures at empire


    Rushing forward with wild abandon for no discernible reason, the monster leapt up in the air, swinging both fists down on the skeleton''s head.


    In response, the undead took one step to the left, raised one fist up, and hit the monster squarely in the jaw, rattling its brain around in its skull just as itnded down on nothing, sending it stumbling away like it had just drank a whole barrel of booze.


    Walking up to the defenceless aggressor, he grabbed both sides of his head, giving it a good twist, breaking the ape-like creature''s neck.


    So far, so good.

 Chapter 123 Chilling

    Or not, soon after easily dealing with the monkey, Loimos was hit by what wasmonly referred to as an avnche, which carried him into some sort of cave, evident by the fact that the area was covered in stgmites and stctites, the entire ce was packed with them, it was incredibly difficult to move around efficiently, but the hindrance was mostly to due to the floating bits of snow hammering the undead with spells.


    Countless snowballs were constantly hitting him from various directions, the snow in question sticking to him and threatening to restrict him into an impromptu white coffin, so he had to constantly douse himself with corrosive blood to prevent this from happening.


    Loimos had to guess that those were some sort of spirits, but he couldn''t tell for certain, breaking off a nearby stgmite, he threw it like a javelin at one of them, the spike of rock harmlessly piercing right through the floating snow, ending its course further away and causing many of spikes growing downwards to copse.


    If they couldn''t be affected by physical blows, Loimos would just call forth some miasma, reinforce it with a hefty dose of death force, and spread it all around himself, its effects soon making themselves known upon the environment all around, eating away the surface of the cavern, the moment the death mist touched one of the snow beings, they recoiled in apparent horror, or surprise, or maybe it just felt weird, all that mattered is that upon being enveloped in the dark purplish fog, the snowball throwers stopped doing so and seemed to focus on defending themselves.


    Once surrounded, Loimos condensed the miasma around them and began to close up the hollow spheres of mist with the snow spirits inside, even then, it took multiple minutes for them to properly die, their forms weren''t corporeal and it seemed like the miasma wasn''t having an easy time consuming them.


    With his harassers taken out of the picture, Loimos was able to finish traversing the sea of stctites and make his back to where the avnche had swept him away, only to discover more problems, namely, more of the snow goris from before, oddly silent and pointing at him, showing the undead to an arriving figure.


    The skeleton unsheathed the dark de, infusing it with a small amount of death force, the energy of the dead was rather destructive, most items couldn''t handle too much of it, the death force he always kept hidden within bursted out and wrapped around his body, enveloping him in its protection.


    Before him, it seemed like some sort of monkey champion had shown up, its arms crossed and looking up to where the avnche had firste down, grumbling, it let it be known that it wasn''t pleased.


    Most likely because the avnche had been its work, and it had hoped for it to sessfully bury the roaming dead body, an utter failure. Discover exclusive tales on empire


    Raising its hands up in the air, gritting it teeth and curling up its fingers, it circted its mana with certain difficulty, transmuting it to the element of ice and forming it into spells, the monster wasn''t taking too much time at this, but it was clearly a strain as the ice mana formed into two swords, well, two chunks of ice vaguely in the shape of swords, it was doubtful whether these things any sort of a sharp edge.


    The smaller apes kept their distances,pletely calm and nearly immobile, this fight was apparently only for the big one to take, despite them having much better chances were they to cooperate, but this had to be some sort of ritual, maybe a way to demonstrate why this one was the wielder, or maybe all of the others were actually females and this was some sort of mating ritual, who knew what was going on in their oh-so small skull.


    Unleashing the odour of putrefaction as he began to move, the armed ape halted his step for a second, then Loimos spoke a word of death his way just as he moved again, making him hesitate once more, twice just as the confrontation began, the monkey wasn''t making good figure in front of its audience.


    In contrast, Loimos arched his body back as the monster roared and swung both his de at once, both of them shing roughly the same area, to conserve his eleration, Loimos manifested some ck blood beneath his feet, sliding elegantly on the snow as he arrived near therge beast, throwing a ball of rot toward its stomach cavity, whilst converting the blood used for movement intopressed masses, which bursted as quickly as the undead created them, pushing him him off the ground just in time to avoid more shes.


    Once again, the monster didn''t see it fit to use his two swords, to attack two ces at the same time, with the size difference between the two, Loimos had no issue dodging the long-winded strikes of the monster, ending up right in front of its face, Loimos pped his hands, the same thing that had gotten an orc defeat was shot right at the big-nosed snow monkey, since then however, it had gotten much stronger and more precise,nding straight in the left eye.


    Feeling the blood slither around in its eyeball, the ape shouted out in anger, resulting in a very real wave of sound that crashed right into Loimos at point nk, sending him flying into the side of a rocky area.


    An attacking from the mouth was deemed to move at the speed of sound, or at least somewhat simr, it would have certainly been a good idea on the monster''s part to begin the fight with that handy attack that Loimos couldn''t have dodged.


    Rising up after getting thrown around and having his bones shifted around at odd angles, his rot coat had been able to absorb much of the concussive force, the snow hended into afterward was also to thank, but he had definitely cracked many bones still.


    Therger ape trampled the ground, digging into its own eye sockets to try and remove what was eating through him, his body was durable, very much so, but itsck of focus caused its icey swords to be dismissed and despite its brethren raising their voices to apparently warn the approaching doom, it didn''t pay attention and ended up with a death infused sword shoved down to the pommel in its eye.


    Pounding on the end of the handle, Loimos forced the de deeper into its brain, killing it for good, the cacophony of cries heightened, the monkey''s had set up a duel, but it seemed like only one result was eptable in their book as they began to surround the undead.


    Pulling out an oddly dark crystal from his pocket alongside a piece of bone, not a mere shard this time, but a genuine piece of one of his fingers, dropping them on the deceased ape champion, the two materials dispersed and vanished, and the dead rose.

 Chapter 124 One Problem To Another

    After turning the remains of the champion into a puppet using his acquired finesse, as well as sacrifices of his own body, with golemcraft and spirit creation, the horde of snow dwellers didn''t back off, instead charging forth harder as though they were in a frenzy.


    But was of little importance, Loimos used his rot to propel himself away from the converving mass, and made use of the champion in a most simple way, using its greater size and mass, the undead made it roll around on top of its former fellows, crushing them into red goo without them being able to do anything about it.


    Soon afterward, the reanimated corpse ceased any actions, unfortunately, when bringing anything to some sort of undeath, the time was limited as Loimos couldn''t quite stop his death force within them from leaking out as it threw itself on the closest life around.


    Apart from having a great deal of damaged bones, the undead had dealt with the situation at hand rather well and moved forward, not encountering much of the other inhabitants, for those that he did notice, they all scampered away before he could do anything about their breathing situation.


    Stirring up snow as he walked, night fell and the conjoined suns reappeared as he noticed what appeared to be the edge of the mountain, and indeed it was, a rather precarious slop greeted him alongside the sight of a dense forest which trees reached incredibly high, nearly half the distance separating him from the ground down there.


    These trees had no leaves whatsoever, only densely packed thorns grew all over them, connecting each of the tall nts to one another, the prickles colouring the whole thing with their dark red.


    Assessing and calcting the optimal way of getting down there without exploding against a rock along the way, Loimos was interrupted as the freezing winds going all over the mountains intensified, turning, he realised that, clearly, something had sessfully sneaked rather close to him without being picked up by any of his senses.


    Shrouded in a thick blue fog, two eyes stared right at him, only the head and neck of the being protruded from the concealing mantle of the freezing mist, a whitish, thick skinned beast with a maw full of teeth the size of the average man''s arm, at the base of its neck, a mana of dark blue feathers.


    Its eyes were calm, its skin covered in deep, yet natural gashes simr to wrinkles, Loimos couldn''t be certain of what he was looking at until the creature moved forward a bit, a wing protruding from the fog.


    Simply put, it was probably of the lengthy dragon family tree, and as such, Loimos stepped off the side of the mountain, allowing himself to get torn apart right as the mighty creature roared, creating a dome of pure frost, freezing even the snow, reaching the spot the undead had stood moments ago.


    Bing an ice statue certainly would have thrown a wrench in his objectives, the dragonoid moved with careful steps to the edge, seeing Loimos ragdolling in the distance, puffing frozen air from its nostrils, it turned back, not nning on giving chase since the undead had so courteously left on his own.


    Contrary to what might have been expected, Loimos managed to keep all of his limbs thanks to utilising his rot well enough to soften the many impacts, but in the end, cascading all the way from a mountain, even if somewhat controlled, he was thrown right into a tree, hitting him in the midsection and splitting his body into two.


    Sliding along the thin and soft grass, his lower and upper half ended up rather close to one another, each with variety of broken bones only held together by sheer power of primeval rot, everything was much darker here, only few strands of light could be seen finding a way past the thorns up above, everything down there was covered in dark green grass, vegetation wasn''t very flourishing, only few stray bushes and smaller trees could be seen into the distance, amidst the enormous barks of the leafless trees.


    They somehow seemed even taller than they were before, Loimos''s senses couldn''t be tricked however, they had definitely grown taller than they were when he was looking up from above.


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    Sticking himself back on, Loimos rose to his feet, swaying a bit as the rot took proper hold to stop him from dividing himself again, the forest was thriving, however, he wasn''t sensing any wildlife anywhere, having monsters capable of hiding from his senses was one thing, but he wasn''t even noticing a single insect in the vicinity, he stepped forward, the ground was a bit soft, he could feel himself sinking a slight bit with his every steps, making a splosh noise every time.


    This ce was damp, seemingly unaffected by the egregious heating from above despite the temperature being incredibly high, he must have been close to arge body of water, but he couldn''t see any or hear any flowing even when focusing his senses, he had read much things back in Weafewand, many concerning regions ranging from the most simple and uninteresting ones to the magical wonders, somehow, nothing had mentioned this clearly suspicious forest however.


    He walked for an entire day without encountering anything he hadn''t already, night had fallen and everything was perfectly pitch ck, a better environment for the undead, since his darkness awareness could work full time, providing him with an additional sense, yet, there was still nothing, Loimos knew very well that he couldn''t have been caught in an illusion, yet, he was well aware that the forest hadn''t been nearly sorge to begin with.


    A few hours of walking into any direction should have taken him right on out, but it hadn''t.


    Something was definitely off, but just as was about to try something else, he stumbled upon human remains, well, humanoid at the very least, bones in perfect conditions, still wearing their clothes and grasping on an unrusted sword, the corpse sitting against a tree and looking forward still, not curled up miserably like they had died from exposure, just sittingfortably.


    Not a speck of death emanated from the corpse, like it was actually a prop.


    Following the discovery, a life signature appeared right behind Loimos, his merged undead senses, telling him everything he could possibly know about the sudden apparition, but before he could do anything about it, it had already grabbed onto him, and without much effort, threw him right through the thorns and branches up above, going through them without breaking any, crashing right back down onto the forest ground.

 Chapter 125 An Old Sight

    After being flung across who knows how many kilometers, Loimos got up like nothing happened, finding himself unharmed in spite of the heavy fall he wasn''t able to soften, he just sort of fell t to the ground, instantly losing all momentum.


    That little airborne session did help him get a free overview of the forest, and it now extended in every direction beyond what his senses could see, the mountain was nowhere to be seen, nothing but an endless expanse of the forest of thorns.


    Even if all directions led to absolutely nothing, Loimos picked the one supposed to get him closer to his next destination and instead of just walking, since he had somehow ended up in a strange ce, he dropped the living facade for now and began sprinting in the most efficient way possible, the sound of his footsteps striking the wet ground grew louder and faster.


    Quickly enough, he stumbled upon other skeletal remains, this time, those of a young child, once more, in pristine condition and posing in a way that indicated no reaction to their death, this time however, he propelled his blighted blood in every direction before the being even revealed itself, despite the barrage of acid, it grabbed Loimos anyways and flung him away.


    This being was nothing more than a long, skinny arm that appeared out of thin air, despite clearly possessing life force, it didn''t react much to being harmed, repeating the same series of action a few more times, Loimos could tell that the arm in question retained the damage inflicted upon it.


    It was odd really, he could only supposed that this forest, this ne was actually some sort of ability, perhaps the domain of something or someone, but the method of killing was rather specific, and frankly, inefficient.


    The arms flinging Loimos around couldn''t hurt him in any ways, the few bushes and smaller trees around always had plenty of berries and fruits, all of which weren''t poisonous or harmful, one could simply live here rtively well.


    They could also not approach the dubious cadavers, Loimos had stood a distance from one for dozens of minutes, but the arm would only act when he was almost right on top of them, it might still be effective on a living, but Loimos couldn''t be bothered by any of it.


    To him, it was all just stalling him.


    Stalling¡­


    Growing rot from his palms, he threw it on a nearby tree and immediately began to have it produce miasma, Allowing the decay to grow and grow until it swallowed entire trees whole, meanwhile, Loimos stood still, unclear from the exterior was he was doing, the light from the two suns peeked in.


    Despite clearly being some sort of separated space from the actual forest, it still retained the twin-suns as its light source, the details of this ce mattered little as it was being drowned in an endless stream of death miasma and constantly spreading masses of rots, simr to what he had created to erase Weafewand, only on a smaller scale.


    The life here was genuine after all, so if he overwhelmed life with death, it was deemed to alle crashing down, Loimos thought so, and the hand must have as well as it broke the rules it had followed until now and manifested on its own, or perhaps damaging to environment always was a way of summoning it.


    Appearing amidst dense miasma, it visibly withered moments after appearing, its life force being sapped and destroyed, it grabbed Loimos anyways and attempted throw him, this time, he had rigged himself and the spikes normally supposed to burst out of his left arms bursted from his chest, right where the hand liked to grasp him, the throw was aplete fail, the flinger writhing like a worm in the sun as the miasma seeped in through its gruesome wound.


    And then, nothing happened, the miasma continued to spread and no further attempts were made to stop it, until the false reality broke and a voice reached Loimos directly inside of his dead mind.


    "You are terribly hard to contain, it''s barely been an hour, Loimos" the undead was back in the actual forest, before him, some sort of fly-looking creature was struggling as countless roots stabbed its body in all direction.


    "I even enlisted the assistance of this fellow, what a shame" pulling its roots back, the body of the monster waspletely torn apart, the bloody appendages retreating back a small tree inplete dichotomy with the rest of nt-lives all around, it was only half as tall as Loimos, and had a face, a familiar one at that.


    ''The First Seed'' the undead recognised the lively nt even with its stark change in stature, sending a wave of ck blood without wasting any time, the tree retreated underground, its potent life signature vanishing despite its voice remaining clear.


    "Now, that simply isn''t correct decorum when meeting an old acquaintance, even if it hasn''t been that long all things considered¡­"


    "Loimos, a name granted by the system¡­ Or is it simply etched into your very being? Whatever that may be, I thought that I would be able to do something here, but I must have grown numb in the head, you have be a mightier undead sincest then, I can not do much on my own¡­" the deep and ancient voice of The First Seed faded away, the old tree had truly left after spouting a few words.


    Loimos remained alert, despite what it had said, a burst of life force like it had done back in the underground world could definitely seal the deal, or perhaps it couldn''t do those as easily as it seemed.


    The spot where it had been nted hadn''t been damaged by it burrowing into the ground, in fact, it seemed much more vibrant than the rest of the forest, its sheer presence and life force enough to make the surroundings grow healthier and stronger.


    The undead stepped forward with caution, this time noticing the life forces of the critters and distant animals, going over to the spread out remains of the fly monster, Loimos couldn''t discern the exact reason why The First Seed had taken it hostage, but from what it had said, it seemed like the ability he had been put under originated from it rather than the tree.


    And in the far distance, figures were alreadying to meet with the undead, there really was no downtime in the wild.

 Chapter 126 Mist

    Apart from a few, terribly cared for des and some arrows, that only met the requirement to be called so because they were shot from a bow, sticking out of him, Loimos hadn''t encountered much issues traversing the forest of thorn, it had been home to some groups of people-sized trolls, who wore clothing and had a constant, off-putting smile on their faces, but they seemed to be spending their times herding deers as cattle, so they weren''t much of a threat.


    Sure, they had managed to surrounding him at one point, pin him down and stab him in the guts about five dozens of time like expert knifemen, but Loimos couldn''t ask to be attacked in a better spot than this, there was literally nothing they could do with their shoddy weapons that way.


    It had given him plenty of time to engulf them in rot and throw them off, picking them off one by one from there, they hadn''t stopped smiling even in distress when he reciprocated the warm wee and spilled their guts with their own blunt des.


    Their skin was a bit tougher than the average human, so it was a bit more difficult but not overly so, he really didn''t know why no one would want to write about this small forest, but once he came out and got a good look at the surroundings, he immediately got a good guess as to why nobody bothered to document the area, it seemed like the thorn forest was situated right in between the freezing mountains and an enormous foggyke.


    And by foggy, it meant that one couldn''t see even five meters in front of them, and even then, that little zone of sight wasn''t very clear, with his impressive sights and senses, Loimos could probably see further than most, waving his hand through the thick mist, it almost seemed tangible.


    The water was simr, not dark, seeming rather clear in fact, however it was also foggy, somehow.


    He knew of thatke however, it was just that the maps he had consulted weren''t very urate, the cartographers were seriously cking on their jobs, there wasn''t supposed to be water here ording to them, then again, they had missed an entire forest, the slouches couldn''t be trusted in their own field of expertise.


    That posed a problem however, this wasn''t like the waters of the underground world from the beginning, this was crawling with rather unpleasant locals, Loimos couldn''t hope to be ignored thanks to being a corpse either, the bottom was teeming with purgatory octopuses, monster that weren''t deserving of such an appetion, and certainly not octopuses, but they were numerous and love rotting carcasses.


    Which they wouldn''t, and couldn''t shy away from, as they were nothing but slimes, even if they weren''t equipped to eat through his clothes and all, they would swarm him and find a way to get their tentacles on his nasty bones, dissolving them even if they had to kill themselves by nibbling on his death force.


    Their poption was simply too high, their love for putrefaction meant that he wouldn''t be able to easily kill them with rot or blighted blood either, he could only do so by injecting death force, with howrge theke was, he wouldn''t make it by just traversing the bottom.


    That was without considering the fact that he might just get crushed by anotherke dweller, they weren''t very keen on rotten flesh, but if they didn''t like his presence, they could probably just sweep at him and turn him into a life-size skeleton puzzle.


    He examined his other options.


    Swimming on the surface should leave him out of reach of the slimes, by dropping balls of rot as he went, he would be able to prevent them from ascending up andtching onto him where they felt that he really was just a snack that warranted the hustle.


    Not viable either, much like sharks, some of creatures didn''t have the best eyesight and wouldn''t recognise a humanoid figure swimming, easily mistaking him for something else and just chomp him down, he could release blighted blood to deter those, but then that exposed him for rebellion from thergest threat, which gave theke its name and looks.


    The Mist-Drowned wasn''t a big fan of people messing with theke, said to have murdered one man, and gone back to kill someone in the next few generations over the course of many years just because he had thrown an old pair of boots in.


    No need to say that it might have been an overreaction, but The Mist-Drowned was the one who made the rules, don''t overstep your boundaries and it won''t do anything, one could fish in theke just fine, just don''t do it too much, a fisher and his group had been too overconfident and the guardian of Mistdrown had given this body of water its name and also given itself a title, by drowning them all by sheer control of the mist, except for one, there needed to be someone to tell the others what wrong had brought forth the marine justice.


    Loimos wasn''t certain, but he felt that dousing ck blood for the entire duration of his swim through theke might not be seen in the best of lights, although the skeleton had also wondered whether or not the creature was a fellow undead or not.


    But he had his answer right there, the mist carried the slightest bit of life force, it wasmon for other energies to seep in when one used any energy or an ability, and it seemed like the fog that permeated both the air above and the waters was an aspect of The Mist-Drowned powers.


    Well then, he doubted that he could just challenge theke benefactor to a fight and win, so he had to find a boat, or make one from scratch, he looked around the shore for anyone that might have crashed in the past but this ce was pristine, as should have been expected.


    Thankfully, Loimos could enlist the help of fine gentlemen, they may be monsters but with their builds and habits, surely the trolls could make sense of his words, this continent was blessed by a singrnguage after all, he hadn''t heard them say anything before.


    If they couldn''t understand with words, then he would speak to them with actions.


    He unsheathed his de, going back into the forest.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 128 Sand

    The troll of the thorn forest clearly knew how to build things, small houses, fences and tools, such as axes and fishing rods, they definitely held some level of skill in that department, so having them build a boat shouldn''t be out of the realm of possibilities, unfortunately,munication was difficult, they actually seemed to understand Loimos more when he spoke in the death tongue than the pale tongue.


    Those guys were awfully silent at all times, actually conveying things to one another by staring at each other and doing some eye movements, sounds meant nothing to them, so they actually got more of the undead''s intent when he uttered words on thenguage of the dead, it carried more of his will, one might say.


    It still wasn''t going well however, none of the dispersed groups of trolls seemed to have experience in nautical travel, curiously, none had thought of going fishing anywhere further than the shores, but Loimos only needed something that floated and could support his weight, the equivalent of a piece of flotsam really.


    Nothing too fancy, but with how unwilling his building partners were being, Loimos might just get proficient enough with his rot to create his own approximative boat before any of those trolls got the message, from afar, the undead looked like he was trying tomunicate with a bunch of chimpanzees by making broad movements, and growing mouldy eyes to try and replicate theirmunication methods.


    When that failed, and no progress was made, Loimos calmly made a troll home vacant with the help of his fists, tearing to thing down, he gathered the rough nks the monsters created and simply began to try and create something himself, he had no knowledge but he might was well learn, the trolls already had the required materials for it to work out, by being graciously given said materials, the undead went to build up multiple attempts, which really where just a few nks tied together.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Which were then thrown into the water and tested to make sure the skeleton wouldn''t sink at one point, by doing nothing but this for an entire week, Loimos quickly began to see some amount of sess, first it was that the flotsam could float on its own, then he managed to figure out how to prevent water from seeping in at all.


    After another week of funing, Loimos had his floating piece of wood operational, and a paddle, which was just a branch, he sailed upon Mistdrown, the angr and unnatural shape of the rickety boat was definitely too foreign for any of the marine creatures to wish to take a bite out of it.


    Some swam around curiously, but ended up deciding to do nothing, Loimos, whose senses were muddled by the fog, could only tell that much by the movements of the water, but as he traversed theke, nothing came to disturb him, the fog didn''t shift in an aggressive manner.


    One possibility that didn''t escape the undead was that The Mist-Drowned might take offence if an undead intruded upon theke, after all, Loimos was very much willing to turn this beautifulke into a swamp of ck blood after all, he just didn''t try it because he was well aware that his current mission would be much more conductive to his goals, and also because provoking guardian wasn''t very wise for him at the moment. Continue your adventure at empire


    He made it to the other end of the shore without any hitch, and with just a few weeks lost due to a poor cartography job, the foggyke was situated nearnds unimed by any major power, it wasn''t a huge swath ofnd by any means, only a few viges and tribes were found within, the reason this area was left mostly untouched wasn''t because the area wasn''t rich or was particrly dangerous, it was a designated border between two nations.


    And the one Loimos arrived in after making his way through here wasn''t Tochi, but Pezerx, thend of sand, Loimos had to go through the gigantic desert empire before setting foot in the country he was aiming for, in the dreadful summer that was getting hotter by the day nheless, the people here had grown limated to the extreme heat, in more than one ways.


    But Loimos, whilst unaffected by heat on a surface level, might actually catch on fire, not undeterred by the prospect of bing a skeleton torch, move forward and it didn''t take too long for the intense warmth to intensify even further within the desert, the air visibly distorted to hardly imaginable degrees.


    However, there was one advantage that Loimos had in the desert, in the uncivilised portions of the desert, which included the entirety of the outskirts of the empire, most of the poption situated closer to the center of the desert, where cities had been built around flourishing oases.


    But on the spans of sand, where death wasmon for both the local wildlife and visitors from afar, undeads naturally rose from the sand, said to be swarming ancient ruins buried in the sand, sealed vestiges of the past containing untold amounts of corpses animated by death force.


    "Follow me" the corpses that wandered the desert even in daylight were mindless, and followed their fellow who could utter word in the death tongue without question, this way, Loimos didn''t have to worry about the monsters that also roamed thends of the empire, together, they had the numerical advantage in case of problems.


    On his way to Tochi, Loimos was nning on taking some time to visit the buried ruins, whilst Pezerx was an empire much too young to be known to Faraday, the great desert had been there for seemingly forever, it had been and prone to death for a long time now and used to be under the watch of undeads trusted by King Nitok, the ancient forts and monuments erected by them had been destroyed and had sunken in the sand, so the odds that any of them still remained was slim, but not impossible.

 Chapter 129 Legion

    During the war against the undead, the great desert where Pezerx now stand was a territory fully controlled by the repugnant corpses, many explorers and adventurers, in search of riches are sorely reminded of this fact when they uncover one and attempt to break inside, only to be met by a swarm of dried corpses and skeletons, pouring out of the ruins like a tidal wave, ughtering them all, taking them apart and dragging their bodies through the sand, back inside.


    The ruins are sealed once more, and the desert, as if well aware of the horrors dwelling inside, covers it once more, burying the hateful dead once more, until someone else made the dire mistake and it all repeated.


    Thankfully, after this happening dozens of times, people have learned their lessons, especially when supposedly prepared parties were wiped out just as easily, the undead of the desert seemingly unbeatable, reforming even after being shattered to dust, only life can force the restless cadavers to their rightful graves.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Still, faced with the knowledge of the age of those tombs, the death hunters preferred to focus on burying those ces deeper and harder, encasing them with sturdy rocks to prevent all thinking that treasures inside could be piged without difficulty.


    Despite nameless to history, the undeads that ruled the desert under the king of the dead''s name were tough opponents, in the environment of the desert, which they were said to have control over, the brave warriors of life could only crumble and burn, swarmed and assaulted by countless of the undead filth.


    However, I wager that the death hunters could exterminate them all with ease, indeed, I have discovered that the rulers of the desert were all defeated by Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light, or at least, a great majority of them.


    The heroine was naturally immune to the scorching heat the desert lords could conjure, without that, they couldn''t amount to much.


    As such, I call for a grand operation to permanently purge the old ruins, easing ourselves of a problem that is only waiting to blow up.


    -Excerpt of ''Call To Arms'' by Bethome Meleme.


    "Now I am certain, the number of corpses has definitely increased!" a big, swarthy man rubbed his forehead, he looked intensely at the discoloured skeleton, whose bones had taken up on a shade simr to the sand, which had still filled its skull as the man brought down his hammer down on it.


    Making certain that it wasn''t going to suddenly reform itself and attack him, he looked over at the rest of his party, countless undeads littering the ground, all needing much more force than usual to take downpletely, it was just like for the undeads of the ruins.


    The corpses that arose and roamed the desert were usually much weaker, and less numerous.


    "They are smarter as well, the random wanderers don''t usually carry weapons or remnants of armour, some of them clearly scavenged or killed people for their equipment" another manmented, having raised his sleeve to tend to a nasty wound left on his forearm.


    Not left by a sword, but by the bite of an undead still covered in dried skin, the risk of infection was concerning, so he didn''t wait any longer than necessary to clean the wound and spill some alcohol on it.


    The men present around all had dark skin, a must to not get fried by the sun in Pezerx, wearing ample clothing shielding their bodies and allowing for air to refresh them, they were all tired, having grossly underestimated the undeads.


    "The client said that there weren''t nearly as many as that, those fuckers were waiting in the sand as well!


    Husksying traps and forming groups is concerning, is it the work of a necromancer?" one that had had the displeasure and getting skewered by a weathered spear right in the side of his stomach,ying on his other side as someone applied the little healing magic they knew over to him, trying to get the sand that had gotten into the injury when the man had been sent rolling to the ground.


    Singrly, they were better than the corpses in nearly all departments that wasn''t stamina and the likes, but the second they had been divided and surrounded by more than one, problems arose, they were lucky that only a few of the undeads had gotten they hands on weapons, otherwise they wouldn''t have escaped this fight with just wounds.


    "Alright, you can thank the stars, the spear didn''t damage any organs, and no, those undeads are not controlled by a necromancer, I sense no traces of magic being casted on them, those are all natural undeads" the designated mage of the group spoke up, scratching his chin in thought, he couldn''t see any reason as to why the amount of undeads would suddenly start increasing, as well as their quality.


    Usually, the risen dead would only wander around aimlessly, the fact that this was changing would be noticed very quickly.


    "With some luck, we could get a bonus for reporting this first-" the one with the injured arm thought of extra money when he noticed the youngest, and most agile, member of their group fall backward after climbing up on a hill, a knife stuck in his throat, his eyes wide open as he stared back at his silent party members.


    With many of them injured, and all of them absolutely spent after having to fight for much longer than expected under the twin suns, they could only look up as a shadow appeared over their downed ally, the figure obstructing one of the suns, until others joined its sides,pletely casting the adventurers in shadows.


    A purplish mist spread, incredibly close to the ground, gathering around the destroyed undeads and seeping into their broken bodies, infusing just a speck of death force was enough for them to reform, sending panic throughout the group of living, those that had their movements restricted were thrown in a struggle as the reawakened corpses lunged at them without hesitation.


    ''Shit!'' those that could run, did so, abandoning their woundedpanions.

 Chapter 130 Strongholds

    Now, obviously their reaction was fueled by sheer instinct and terror, it didn''t take long for some of them to regret their decision of leaving theirrades and friends behind like this, but upon turning back, their spirits ignited by a desire to save fellow livings, they could only see that the dead did not hesitate, the wounded had already been torn apart by the recently reformed undeads.


    On the hill, a figure unlike all of the others spoke an iprehensible word, it was like an insidious whisper and an impossibly loud roar at the same time, utilising their moment of weakness caused by fear and guilt, the corpse leading the desert''s cadavers petrified them all for a few instants, simultaneously, undead charged down the hill, some of them appearing armed with bows and arrows, javelins and various others ranged weapons.


    The sole mage amidst the group of living conjured up wall of sandstone hastily, blocking a great deal of projectiles, many of those that had still been standing were struck down after having failed to break free of the death tongue''s dread, still targets were killed swiftly, some of them turned into bloody porcupines.


    Some that had managed to get their bodies moving were still hurt by the volley, the uracy of the dead was not to be underestimated, they did not tremble, need to breathe and their vision couldn''t be impaired easily, those lucky enough toe out unscathed of this ordeal resumed their escape without any thoughts given to one another.


    The sand trembled, all of the living knew what this was, some cursed their rotten luck, others, including the mage dared to hope that the arrival of a member of the infamous monsters of the desert would instead aid them survive, it simply depended on which of the two party that sand crawler would target first.


    Bursting out from beneath the sand, arge creature cked its worn-out mandibles, it''s insectoid maw flowing with sand as it emitted a shrill, nearly otherworldly cry, the mage paled as he turned to the beast, it''s exoskeleton was missing parts, its flesh was dry and covered by sand, holes dug into its flesh by time and allowing the living to gaze upon the hollow insides of the monster.


    "Ah, what sins have wemitted to deserve such a-" his words were cut short, the sand crawler swung its head like a battle axe, bisecting the fleeing adventurers in two, knowing that there was nothing that could be done, the mage unconsciously let go of his control over his sandstone wall, allowing an approaching undead to split his skull with a single strike of a curved de.


    Loimos overlooked the bloodied sand, decorated with the recently deceased corpses of the adventurers, their bodies still bleeding, some of even still twitching, rather than decaying the remains as he usually did, the undead allowed another skeleton wearing a simple robe, its jaw devoid of any teeth, the lower portion hanging down loosely and its skull filled to the brim with sand like many other of the desert cadavers.


    It uttered a single word in the death tongue, the most it could manage before raising its bony hands up in the air, performing a special art it had been taught by the rulers of the desert long ago, Loimos participated in the action, furnishing the fellow skeleton with death force that was sent out toward the corpses, forcefully raising them as mindless undeads, necromancy wasn''t a simple practice, very few could perform such a thing with just magic, even amidst the dead themselves.


    Loimos himself was only able to allow the dormant undeads of the desert to awoken by using his miasma infused with death force, but that was an entirely different matter, he was merely giving them what was necessary for them to rise once again.


    He had spent quite some time excavating his fellows, going around and digging into the sand to recover their bones and body parts, with some assistance from some that had already been wandering the surface, he had managed to awake the robed skeleton, he was only a lesser spell caster possessed no particr affinities, but he had been taught a necromantic art.


    By having him around, Loimos wasn''t going to have to wander around aimlessly in search a sign of the buried ruins, the other mindless undeads couldn''t quiteprehend what he wanted them to show him, it was dubious whether they were even as ancient as the mage either way, people dying and their corpses being covered up by the sand wasn''t an umon urrence in Pezerx.


    Gathering up more forces as they went, the mage was leading the way toward a lost bastion of the undead armies, encountering many corpses that either Loimos could reawaken, or that the mage could use the art to raise a undeads, this included the desert crawler, arge and long centipede-like monster that travelled beneath the sand to ambush preys, but preys weren''t exactlymon ce, so they mostly partook in cannibalism.


    Taking notice that the presence of adventurers must mean that a city, or at least a settlement was close, it wasn''t visible however.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The oases weren''t present during the rule of the dead over the desert either, such blossoming life would have never been tolerated, so the mage couldn''t pinpoint the locations of cities and such.


    The ancient fortresses and their surroundings weren''t exactly conductive to lush environments, so they didn''t encounter any of the areas where the people of Pezerx lived, finding themselves in front of an inconspicuous area, a t piece of sandynd much like everything else in this empire, but Loimos could definitely sense the massive amount of death force hidden below.


    Loimos was fully prepared to dig his way to the entrance and to force it open, but the caster stepped forward, spread his arms, raising them up until his body formed the shape of the letter Y.


    "Rise"


    "Open"


    He spoke one word at a time, his gesturebined with the spoken words seemed to activate something, the buried structure rose out from the sand, the entrance opening with ease despite having clearly been sealed from the outside before.


    The rulers of the desert had installed some nice functions on their strongholds.

 Chapter 131: Colourful

    The inside of the ancient construction was rather modest, it was a ce only for undeads to dwell in after all, there was no need for anything flowery or superficial, only the bare minimum, space and equipment, the inside was clouded with an old miasma, not quite as aggressive as Loimos¡¯s own, but it was sufficient, inside, many undeads simr to the mage he had picked up could be found.


    Other mana practitioners and some warriors wearing old armour, they couldn¡¯t say much, but they were capable of speaking some words in the death tongue, it was good to know that old forces of the army were still operational to this day.


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    Much like One, the ones that weren¡¯t mindless seemed to simply know that their king would eventually reim his throne, waiting in the ancient fortresses for his return to attack the nearby cities, however, Loimos wasn¡¯t too keen on them throwing themselves against a well-established civilisation the second King Nitokwas broken from his seal.


    It made little doubt that they would at least suffer lots of losses, if not outright lose, Pezerx was definitely well aware of the undeads stacked up in the buried ruins, they didn¡¯t do anything about it for now because it wasn¡¯t an active issue, but it would be foolish of them not to have a few things prepared in case the dead decided tounch an attack.


    As such, in the absence of any leading figure amidst the undeads, Loimos took up the role, with his immense and immacte death force, as well as his perfect speech in the death tongue, there was no doubt in their bones that the undead was effectively their hierarchical superior.


    He ordered them to take in the undeads he had raised in the desert, except for the mage, and instructed them to bury the ruin as deep as they possibly could, ensuring that the remaining forces of their king were kept safe.


    Making certain that they would stay put upon Nitok¡¯s release from his seal, he wanted them to be avable for the king tomand them directly, he was a professional after all, the undead leading the entirety of the dead and having the loyalty of the gravelords had to be a glorious strategist, it was best to leave as many soldiers for him to order around.


    After all, it was undeniable that nowadays, the threat of the dead wasn¡¯t nearly that big of an issue, apart from highly dangerous zones like the desert of Pezerx, undeads rarely naturally formed, Faraday would say that at the height of his the king¡¯s rule, the living had to destroy every corpses for even deep within the territories of the living, the dead would rise of their own all of the times soon after death.


    The death hunter were still active, and the ire they held toward the dead was strong, however, they had much less work than during the rule of Nitok, back then, every single one of the hunters had been powerhouses, not so much today, Loimos had been able of defeating one on his own even.


    The stronghold sunk back into the ground, much deeper than before, sand covering over it under the gaze of Loimos and the nameless mage, thetter was still needed around to raise the dead and gather more forces as they went, as well as opening the way to the other fortresses.


    Loimos was able of sensing travellers and adventurers from afar, upon gathering a sufficient amount of undeads, he wouldunch carefully prepared attacks upon the unsuspecting groups, the first few days ended up in quite a lot of adventurer casualties, the travellers weren¡¯t very numerous, and no one would notice their disappearances, the adventurers however, it was quickly noticed that the parties had a tendency of vanishing more often than they used to.


    It wasn¡¯t simple of pinpointing the cause for the desert people, Loimos didn¡¯t let anyone live to tell the tale, and made sure that him and his convoy of corpses didn¡¯t linger anywhere close to the cities, only attacking the living that wandered far into the desert for one reason or another.


    The killing wasn¡¯t the main objective anyways, Loimos was simply using the guidance of the mage to visit each of the ancient constructs, awakening undeads and raising the corpses of desert crawlers as they went, adding additional forces to every ruin they visited whilst also making sure that they received Loimos¡¯s orders, it took multiple months to move around, but it was definitely worth the trouble, strengthening their foundation for when King Nitok took the reigns was of great importance.


    Adventurers became rare to encounter, and by the end of it, Loimos had been able to ry his words to every location and amass greater numbers without anything happening, the living were oblivious to his actions, allowing him to fulfil his mission without any hitch.


    Learning the necromantic art from the mage before leaving him in thest ce they visited, Loimos also got himself a bow and a whole bunch of arrows while he was here as well, and contrary to what had been expected, despite the temperaties continuously increasing bit by bit every day, he hadn¡¯t caught on fire yet, but the summer season and the twin suns didn¡¯t appear to be on their way off either.


    His boots filled with both sand and salt now, Loimos stepped out of the great desert, his stay uneventful, but of much importance, he had discovered that none of the rulers of the desert appointed by the king remained, they had all been truly eradicated.


    The sand was soon cut off, Pezerx and Tochi separated from one another by a measly river, which Loimos was simply able to walk through, immediately, he could tell that this kingdom was much different from anywhere he had been before.


    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    He had known this from his research, but the impression was still the same, the grass wasn¡¯t the same green as usual, the trees had thick trunks and grew in serpentine shapes, blossoming with atypical colours.


    And although he had yet to reach any sort of civilisation, some locals were kind enough toe over to him as soon as he stepped out of the water, tribal-looking monsters of various sizes were alreadying over to bash him over the head.


    Monsters really didn¡¯t know to leave a lone, putrefied carcass by itself, did they?

 Chapter 132: Muho Chitai

    Smashing his back against a nearby tree, alongside the pesky little monster that was currently repeatedly stabbing Loimos in the neck, only to get appallingly fruitless results, the agile little creature¡¯s frame was mangled upon being crushed against the trunk, allowing for the undead to easily grab it and throw it to the ground.


    Pulling out the bone dagger grinding the surface of his neck, the skeleton looked over the surrounding, quite a few of the same sort of monster were sprawled about around the lush scenery, the first one had let out of high-pitch cry, bringing its friends over, forcing Loimos to enact great violence upon them.


    They had dark grey skin, eyes receding into their skulls, big droopy ears and messy teeth that seemingly couldn¡¯t grow properly, their bodies were frail,cking much strength, even some of therger individuals, who had been carrying heavy-looking clubs turned out tock explosive strength, they just let themselves be carried by their swings.


    N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Their tendencies to stop in their tracks to scream also made the job easier for the undead, still, he had to remove a few additional dagger and small spears stuck in his body at the moment, after his trek through mountains, snowy tops, fall off said mountains, traversing a forest, getting knifed by trolls, a desert expedition under exceptionally harsh weather, a small trip in water and now getting stabbed again, he was really looking like a mess.


    His dark coat was riddled with countless holes and tears, worn out by the environment, the white mask stuck on his face was visibly cracked and shifted to greyer tones, the red kiss mark on hit standing out even more now.


    The soles on his boots wished to separated from the rest, all in all, he was truly looking like an errant madman, the dark sword was also chipped, duller than it used to be, the cosmetic enchantment supposed to fool opponents was malfunctioning, actually giving a more threatening look to it as it seemed like the de could actually blow up at any moment. Your next read is at empire


    The bow and arrow were the only objects he owned that were in a good state, at leastpared to the rest at least, he took a few of the monster¡¯s bone daggers, although of rather poor quality, they could do the job.


    Clearing the colourful area of the additional red and bodies, Loimos still had some way before reaching Muho Chitai, it wasn¡¯t exactly near the border and Tochi wasn¡¯t exactly small either, the terrific strength of the siamese suns weakened as he left the desert, but calling the rays they emitted weak would be a gross understatement.


    Also, whilst one of them retained the appearance everyone knew a sun to have, the other one was taking on a darker shade, the splitting of the sun during the summer season wasn¡¯t abnormal, however, that new development was far from typical, the suns were supposed to fuse back into one at the end of the season.


    Some were worried, but worry was something for the living, Loimos passed by a few small cities, ignoring them as he traversed some more rivers, quite a few dazzlingly colourful forests and clearings, and thenstly, a swamp that was no less colourful than the rest of this country¡¯s wildlife.


    Finally, he found himself before Muho Chitai, a city said to inhabit a crypt-like construction, he couldn¡¯t find much intel on the nature or description of the point of interest, but it had been clear that there was something for Loimos to investigate here.


    Tochi was an old kingdom, it¡¯s roots had already been firmly nted back during the war, the nature had certainly recovered greatly since back then, it hadn¡¯t always bore this name but by connecting the dots between Faraday¡¯s memories and what Loimos had gathered on his own, it seemed clear that Tochi was one of the few nations that had technically survived the undead legions.


    The skeleton remained at a distance for now, hidden in the muddy ground of the swamp still, he hadn¡¯t really bothered with Pezerx¡¯s constructions and such, so the way things were built here was his first true experience with apletely different architecture, everything was different here, even the way people dressed and acted was distinctively different.


    Loimos could decel such things easily, the areas weren¡¯t very dangerous, as such, the city didn¡¯t really have high walls,only small walls, which appeared more as tasteful decorations that defensive measures, apart from the swamp and one forest opposite to where he was, the area was t and flower filled, devoid of any of the small monsters he had encountered on a few asions, they knew not to mess with the humans.


    Although the poption wasn¡¯t entirely human, they didn¡¯t lean very far from humans but other species could still be seen here and there, beastfolks with no more than the basic apparels of animal ears and a tail, and some horned people.


    The houses were tightly packed, but not directly stuck to one another, some buildings reaching a bit higher than others, but all in all, no constructions exceeded the few watchtowers built around.


    Using his synesthesia to gather information from his position for a week, Loimos quickly came to realise that Muho Chitai was overrun by a slight problem, although very different from Tamaris, the basic structure than interested Loimos was of course the guards and keeper of peace of the city, they were always the main problem.


    Unlike Tamaris, which was a primarily trade-focused nation ruled by a merchant by trade, Tochi was known for its many mercenaries, whilst Tamaris also dwelled into such things, not nearly as much as them, learning how to fight was deeply ingrained into the very soil, for it was the greatest and most respected way to earn ie here, as such, many things were developed around that, even if it didn¡¯t make much sense.


    Anyone that held some sort of influence had to also hold actual power, it was an iron rule, however, the way the people of this achieved power wasn¡¯t typical, they didn¡¯t dwell into the learning of energy or into the system much, innate abilities were also not what they prioritised, Tochi was the pioneer of battle arts, mostly weapon arts.


    All in all, Loimos had been expecting resistance of a kind he had yet to experience, having only witnessed the usage of arts for certain from two swords wielder from this very ce, Three from Aliz¨¦, and the nameless bandit.


    However, what hadn¡¯t been expected was for the city to bepletely under the control of criminals.

 Chapter 133 Nosy Hand

    At a nce, nothing seemed wrong with Muho Chitai, just another city amidst the coloured wilderness, peaceful and beautiful, yet harbouring countless fiercebatants aiming to be renowned with their skills and capabilities.


    However, it didn''t take long for Loimos to realise that the so-called guards patrolling the streets were also bill collectors and regrly intimidated the citizens, the fact that an entire street was home to nothing but shady deals and women offering coitus was also a good indication that this ce did not have an actual official figure in charge.


    In fact, said street saw the most passage and even had its own entrance, which wasn''t even hidden, everything was in in sight.


    Loimos was already certain that regr guards wouldn''t have allowed him through willy nilly considering that he looked like he had fought a pack of lions, but those thugs would immediately search problems and probably try to rob him, they weren''t pleasant to actual travellers even when they came specifically to indulge in the various illegal services they had to offer.


    Moreover, despite his incessant spying, the undead was unable of detecting where the crypt even was, the ruin was certainly controlled by the criminals as well, and the people didn''t like to speak of them, even behind closed doors, even the underlings they used in ce of the guards kept their lips sealed about anything other than the least interesting of things.


    Although mild-mannered and clearly enjoying their power over the popce caught in the schemes of criminality, the guards actually patrolled every inch of the city every day, the night watch wasn''t shabby either, so instead of trying the usual way and attempting to sneak inside whole, Loimos detached his left hand and sent it on a mission.


    Waiting for night toe, Loimos''s limb could easily crawl right through the main entrance, the area was so unproblematic that it wasn''t sealed off, under the mantle of darkness and thanks to being so small, the hand was able of sneaking past the guards, although more than one of them definitely felt like they had heard something, but faced with theck of concrete proof, they convinced themselves that it was nothing.


    Using rot to climb up walls, the skeletal hand listened in on many more conversations, but those bore nothing of substances, Loimos was interested on inspecting the few building that he hadn''t been able to sense anything from, clearly, special measures had been put in ce to prevent anyone from peeping and hearing things that they shouldn''t. Continue your adventure with empire


    As such, the undead definitely needed to hear what was going on in there, for them to ensure that those were made soundproof and not the brothels, there had to be some important matters discussed by the people in charge, whilst well guarded and protected against people, the safety measures hadn''t been erected with a disembodied hand in mind, burrowing itself underneath the foundations, the limb scuttling around, searching for a gap that could possibly lead inside.


    The flooring wasn''t made with wooden floorboards that would easily shift around due to humidity and heat, the floor here was made from woven straws, meaning that Loimos couldn''t easily dig a hole using his ability to rot objects, or use the corrosive nature of his blighted blood, but doing so would leave a clear trace of invasion, unless he was able of finding a spot that wasn''t within the sight of upants, such as underneath or behind a piece of furniture.


    He could feel subtle vibrations from people walking above him from times to times, despite this, his synesthesia wasn''t working properly, despite sensing them through touch, he was unable to get a clear sight of the people or any other of the aspects about them, something was muddling his senses, and it wasn''t the materials the building was constructed with.


    Probing around the lengthy underside of the straw floor with great precaution to not leave even a single milimeter of space unchecked, the undead ended up finding a slight weakness in a corner, pushing up against it, the disembodied hand finally managed to squeeze through the slight gap that was created, the undead found himself in a dusty room filled to the brim with misceneous objects, weapons and sealed containers.


    Cobwebs were umting on the ceiling, only a small portion, which wasn''t crowded with the aforementioned objects of the room, seemed to see some passage, for some reasons, the majority of the stocks in here weren''t seeing any use.


    Now that he was inside, Loimos could sense things around much more easily, although certain rooms remainedpletely off-limit, remaining hidden for a few days, there was clearly regr passage of an important figure, constantly apanied by many guards whose countenance had nothing to do with that of the regr guards, said important character never said anything, but some of the guards positioned around the mansion-like habitation were a bit more talkative.


    Lady Syklon was her name, and from the looks of it, she was the only leading figure of this whole criminal affair, everyone else that seemed to be talked about were nothing more than arms used to carry out her orders, gathering what he could from his position, he then waited until silence befell the manor, which actually meant that it was day, for the nights were always loud and filled by the chatter of many people, many more people that should be able of fitting in the building.


    Latching on the door handle, he twisted the door open, immediately attracting the attention of a nearby guard, who quickly positioned himself right in front of the door, but still a good distance from the inside, his hand resting on the de at his hilt, most certainly preparing to unleash one of the rapid unsheathing art Tochi was most prominently known for.


    Seeing no one inside, sensing nothing off, the guard entered the room, ready to strike down, but there was nothing.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "Huh, what is wrong with this?" he nudged the door, turning the handle to check if the thing was broken, not noticing the limb crawling up right above his head and into the corridor.


    Loimos''s senses had felt off ever since he had entered this ce, and it was rather obvious why now, the inside was many timesrger than the outside suggested, countless rooms and a main room where people were dancing and partaking in various acts of debauchery immediately came into view.


    Lady Syklon was certainly more wealthy and resourceful than Loimos had first assumed.

 Chapter 134 Adorable

    Music from various instruments red throughout the mansion, despite the soft straw flooring, the sounds of countless people walking and dancing could still be distinctly heard everywhere in the buildings, people drank to their heart''s contents and watched with lecherous gazes the dancers, some of them imported from distantnds to add more exotism.


    But the main hall where the main festivities were taking ce was far from the only area inhabited by guests, countless rooms were also avable to them, some were simply private areas where more distinguished clients could do the same thing stated before, feast until their stomachs seemed ready to rupture, or for more private events, there were auctions of various sizes happening everywhere, rooms where coption seemingly never ended, some were people''s darkest desires could be fulfilled, all just with money.


    Curiously, amidst all the raunchy debauchery, there were people simply practising the arts ofbat, one could even tell that once inside the spatially distorted manor, a basement area had be avable, where bloody fights where thepetitors were from various species, be it sapient, animals, monsters and everything else you could think off.


    Nothing seemed out of the realm of possibilities here, stretching into what seemed like infinity, everyone could enjoy themselves in some way, above the basement and various floors of nothing but personal entertainment rooms, across various wide areas like the first one, on the topmost floor, a single room was located, this one significantly smaller than the rest, for one could easily see the end of it.


    An office decorated in a simple manner, the door left open and allowing the sounds from below to seep inside for the head of the operation to revel in, this was the sound of money and sess, this was simply perfection to the ears of Lady Syklon.


    The person in charge of the highly condemnable activities below and all over the city was satisfied with today''s surge of customers, yet it was utterly impossible to infer this from her face, the two guards standing in the room alongside her were convinced that she couldn''t possibly be more mad.


    Eyes colder than ice, the pale blue inspired nothing but a chilling sensation, her expression was a bit more expressive, but it was she wore all day and nights, always appearing displeased with something, in spite of everything going exactly as she wished, a pigeon coulde over and spread its faeces on her shoulder and her day would still be great.


    Going nicely with her eyes, her skin was snow white, rather than giving her the appearance of a sicklyplexion, it simply gave her a special feel to her, her hair was also perfectly white,bed into a simple ponytail slumped over her shoulder, though, out of all the unusual physical aspects of the ringleader of a criminal operation, what was most noticeable where her fuzzy eyebrows, white as well, it would remind someone of one of those cute moths.


    And cute she was, in fact, the men positioned as her guards at the moment only managed to not stare at their adorable boss because transgressions weren''t taken lightly, Lady Syklon looked overly young in appearance, her feet where dangling from her chair as her desk was normal sized, even when wearing wooden shoes to elevate herself a bit, she could still be mistaken for a lost kid.


    It didn''t help that her kimono was sorge and ample, like a parent putting on their own clothes on their child, even on her chair it dragged on the ground and she had to raise her arms to free her hands from the sleeves.


    The guards couldn''t allow their intrusive thoughts to win, she absolutely despised being even slightly treated like a child, thest guy that had done it had left this ce without fingers, toes, a tongue eyes, was sticked in a barrel, force fed milk and honey until he got diarrhoea and turned into a rotten mess in his own excrement while he was still alive.


    In fact, when one realised that she was a grown woman, it only made her seem incredibly uncanny at all times, especially knowing what sort of things she was involved in.


    Drugs, very, proxism, name a crime and you could probably link at least hundred cases back to her.


    She stopped staring at the papers in front of her, raising her head from the desk, her eyebrows raising.


    "Is something the matter, My Lady?" one of the guards was faster on the uptake, their boss could hear pretty much everything inside the building, so seeing her appearing slightly confused at something was tremendous.


    Or maybe it was not and she was just going to sneeze, but one needed to suck up with great efficiency to get in her good books.


    "An insect, or a rat, no¡­ Why does it sound so rough and dry?" she wondered aloud, her voice like a soft cloud blessed by the angels.


    "Find someone to get rid of that filth, and go tell the beastfolk whores to get in action already" her voice was beautiful, but the content wasn''t in corrtion.


    The two guards executed the orders immediately and stepped out, the sound of the pest still ringing in her ears, she sighed and jumped off the chair,nding in the ground, the top of her head barely protruding above the desk as she walked to the center of the office.


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    Dressed entirely in bright blue, dragging behind her, her hands brought together against her body, a refined walk as she tried to pinpoint the location of the critter, well aware that her men could go for days without finding something so simple.


    But that couldn''t be allowed, the way that thing sounded as it scuttered around was greatly displeasing, it didn''t sound like something normal either, leading her to wondering if one of the monsters hadn''t managed to escape, somehow.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    The guys in charge of them better pray that it wasn''t the case.


    ''Those fuckers really think they can get paid when making egregious mistakes on the regr? If they can''t take care of the beasts, then they''ll feed them,zy bastards must have stacked up on some fat'' she cursed them already, listing off every minute mistake they hadmitted in thest years.


    She moved into the hallway, heading straight for the annoying little creature.

 Chapter 135 Lady Syklon

    Lady Syklon stepped into the crooked hallways leading to her office, whilst this room was the sole one on the floor, and also the smallest floor by far, it was still filled with countless hallways, all either led right to the office, or to nowhere, one needed to be approved by thedy to be allowed entry here.


    However, as she followed the sound, she discovered that whatever creature it was, it had bypassed that simple rule and was moving around freely, just as he was trying to cut it off in its path, it took another hallwaypletely and found its way right into her office.


    ''Are the little things exempt from the restriction?'' she wondered, not worried much about this thing infiltrating the most important room of this entire manor, it was clearly nothing worth getting riled up about, rats and insects certainly carried out their functions better than the numerous idiots working for her.


    She didn''t even suspect this little thing she was hearing to actually be a disguised intruder, inside this manor and especially on the top floor, even The Death Dealer wouldn''t be able to stay concealed.


    Arriving back into her office as quickly as she left it, she scanned the room, the sounds stopped shortly after entering, but that was enough for her to know exactly where it had stopped, pushing over a small table, the smalldy looked down at the uninvited guest, or rather, at where it was supposed to be, there was a hole in the ground instead, looking like someone dropped some acid on the floor.


    "That''s it, I am revoking each of their rights" speaking as her face scrunched up, even with an ugly expression and a vein popping on her forehead, Lady Syklon still looked positively adorable, like a kitten hissing, her bite would be otherwise more devastating however.


    Clearly, the men in charge of looking over the monsters had messed up again, they had already been lucky to only get their arms broken when they let loose a cyclops, now it was time to demonstrate what it meant to damage the ground of her own office.


    She breathed in and out.


    "Gather!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice ringing out throughout the entirety of the manor, but was only heard by the guards, the clients and partygoers utterly clueless of the situation.


    Meanwhile, Loimos crawled out from underneath Lady Syklon''s desk, rot growing from his bony fingertips, silencing his finger-steps by also using ck blood and forming it into sludge, ensuring with certainty that he wouldn''t produce a single noise, he couldn''t be certain that the little woman wouldn''t hear him anyways, but he was just a stray hand here, he could afford to get caught anyways, and thus tried it.


    The fairdy left the office quickly enough, probably hoping to catch the critter herself, or most likely going to order her guards around, Lady Syklon was a peculiar human, she didn''t look anything like any other Loimos had ever encountered, using what he had gathered by observing them, he could also deduce that she was the prettiest human he had encountered as well, though her peculiarities might change that, the undead hadn''t studied too in-depth with that aspect of people, it wasn''t very important.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Despite being so small and frail, she held an abundance of refined life force within her, she was clearly strong, probably the strongest person in this manor, which was curious, even in a world where energies could enhance you, where there was a system capable of granting skills and abilities, amidst countless other fantastical ways to increase one''s power, in the end, the strength of one''s own natural body ended up being the deciding factor in a great deal of battles.


    After all, stats weren''t a raw unit of power shared by everyone, all started with no stats at all, zero, nada, one unit of strength for a skinny teenager wasn''t worth the same as the one of a well built martial artist, the difference would be evenrger with a giant.


    Stats built upon the natural foundation of one''s natural capabilities, same as energy reinforcement would naturally work better with someone with the physical capabilities, as such, for such a petite human woman, it should be rather difficult to attain a satisfactory amount of power.


    And yet, Loimos had clearly heard the sound of her clothes brushing up against at least two hilts of de, indicating that much like a lot of people in this nation, she was a swordswoman.


    A rather terrific one at that.


    "There is a hole in the floor of my office, and let me rify that I know exactly who to me for it, not only has a monster been left to wander outside, amidst my clients, amidst my money! It is one that can carve holes through the floor and walls!


    May the one that was in charge of watching over the cages step forward" Lady Syklon spoke, many men and women much bigger than her holding their heads low and doing their utmost to stay as silent as possible.


    "I said to step forward" she added, ever so slightly more demanding, forcing the man in question to move in front of everyone else.


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    "You think you can justmit a mistake like this? Don''t answer you idiot, keep it shut, of course you can''t, show me your hands" shemanded him, and he did as ordered without question, genuinely terrified of her, beginning to tremble.


    Lady Syklon was unpredictable with her punishments, she could be generous and let someone go with just some chastising, or uproot your entire family tree, her mood was impossible to gauge, leading most to believe that she just decided on the sanction at random.


    "Well, would you look at that! Soft and without any blemish, like a baby''s, have tou ever worked a day in your life, you fucking stain?" not expecting any answer, her arm moved for a split second, her hand resting on the hilt of a sword as the arms of the lousy worker fell cleanly off, cut right at the shoulders.


    "Healers, reattach his arms on the wrong spot, let us see what the final form of ipetence looks like" she spat on the ground, motioning for the bleeding man to clear off.


    "You''ll clean up your messter"


    She turned back to the rest of her workforce, somehow even more still than before, now was not the time to make even the smallest of mistakes, theirdy shined a pretty smile at them.


    "Now, go find the critter, be efficient, any ckers will have to find a good exnation, out of my sight" she gave her order and they all spread out into groups without asking any question.


    ''Ah, I should just invest in some golems¡­'' she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

 Chapter 137: Divide And Conquer

    The intense dread of death breathing right down on his neck made the guard tremble, he had had close brushes with it before, or so he used to believe, but it couldn¡¯t bepared to what had just happened to him, death had stared into him, and he had no other choice than to stare back, he became well aware of what wasing and could only crumble, realising that that bing a mangled up mess at the hands of Lady Syklon would be much better than death, he came to know that nothing he had ever experienced could even bepared to it.


    Truly, there was no fate worse than death.


    The dark whispers that reached him in that instant, normally, he would have disregarding the words of a creature such as this, but it offered a way to avoid the ultimate end of his existence, in that very instant, he trusted those words with his entire being, and thus, believing that his life could be spared in exchange of the measly life of his fellow, the dread was reced with a coldposure.


    Lashing out thrice with his de without moving, he unleashed double the amount of mana shes, despitecking in the department of energy control, the de art he had taken up and trained in for years at this point did the heavy lifting for him.


    The only condition was that he had to perform clear movements corresponding the sort of shes he wished to send out, also, by having the weapon art take the mana necessary from his own reserves, this allowed it to be much more devastating.


    Loimos jumped off his shoulder as the scaled man charged right behind the flying blue des, he analysed the weapon art in great detail, he had already attempted to imitate some in the past, to no avail, but that wasn¡¯t going to discourage the carcass.


    Battle arts were an interesting branch of power, they worked in great likeness to conditions and rules, based solely on a strict set of actions and prerequisites, most potent battle arts were jealously guarded by certain groups, making one of the prerequisites for the art to function be that the user be a part of said group.


    This was the case for nearly all of the arts used by the people of Tochi.


    des struck one another as the lean man deflected an attack from his colleague after dodging to the side to evade the barrage of mana shes, the two men were swift, swordsman of Tochi prized themselves over their speed and dexterity, they rarely wore armour, and if they did, it was far from the same protectiveness offered by the suits worn by knights.


    Their swords, katanas as they referred to this variation, shed repeatedly, each strikes capable of leaving a deep gash were it to be allowed tond, the two moved as though they had prepared for those movements for months, with certainty and poise.


    They dodged, parried and deflected with refined movements, only a few seconds had passed since Loimos inserted his odious whispers within the guard¡¯s mind, he had reverted the ck blood within to a more harmless state, still allowing it to burn him from the inside to constantly remind him of the stakes, although that wasn¡¯t even necessary.


    The furious strikes of the scaled man took the other by surprise, he wasn¡¯t holding back, straining his limbs to put an end to his life, this could be exploited but the lean guard couldn¡¯t benefit from this, his strength was inferior, thus, his defences were eventually flung aside, blood spurting from his chest.


    Crazed by fear, the scaled man smiled seeing that he was gaining the upper hand, just for his colleague, to resheath his de, and use his sword in its scabbard to smack the bloodied sword away beforending a kick directly to the stomach, forcing his maddenedpanion away as he unleashed his own sword art.


    "zing instincts!" striking an odd pose and speaking the name of the art clearly were the necessaryponents to coat his de in a bright me, though that was only the most minor of the two effects granted upon him.


    Like a pyromancer enhancing their bodies with precision to push their perception to the maximum, the lean man acquired a sight, hearing, reflexes tempered by fire, taking the wild and explosive nature of the element for himself.


    He arched his body back, dodging one mana de before striking the second one down as he approached his former friend, the scaled guard took a defensive pose, predicting that the fired up swordsman would go for a decisive blow, he aimed to counter and end the fight swiftly.


    ¡¯I¡¯ll feint a mana de before going for a thrust for his heart¡¯ he concocted a n in mere moments, paying close attention to the de of his opponent, shrouded in mes.


    Both of them sprung into action, both convinced that they knew the tricks each other could use perfectly, only one was right in their assumption. Continue reading stories on empire


    Swinging at the same time, one¡¯s de shone with blue glint, whilst the other stopped midway, or rather, so it appeared for a split second as the mantle of me was thrown off the de, directly in the scaled man¡¯s face, utterly thwarting his n and forcing him to back off as fire licked his face.


    This moment of weakness wasn¡¯t wasted, with a swift motion, the lean man sliced off the sword hand of his friend before kicking him straight to the neck, knocking him out on the spot.


    "The healers should be able to figure out what¡¯s wrong with you" muttering, the man stricken by love for theirdy knew that reattaching a hand, even after a while wouldn¡¯t be a problem here.


    The reason manypetent warriors flocked to Lady Syklon was because of that, injuries could be healed easily and having her as an employer meant that one might be rewarded with techniques and such that she had umted with her obscene wealth, or maybe even be taught crumbs of her own battle art.


    Completely confused by what had happened, the lean man still didn¡¯t forget about the monster.


    ¡¯Crap! I lost it during the fight¡­¡¯


    But Loimos hadn¡¯t lost the living,nding on the back of his neck, a single bone spike emerged from the center of his palm, resulting in instantaneous paralysis and death shortly after.


    And then, the rot consumed it all, leaving nothing but the damage caused in the struggle behind as the hand crawled away.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

 Chapter 139 Three Favourites

    Bones creaked and flesh ruptured as the battered bodies rose from their eternal rest, their skin decaying subtly under the strain of Loimos''s death force seeping deep into them, the bodies were fresh, some of them still capable of roaring.


    Climbing and crawling out of theirmunal grave, the mindless carcasses charged at the nearest livings with extreme prejudice, a horned beast rushing to try and fling one of the guards into the air, only for its charge of be met with a bright de of light, cleaving it straight in half with exceeding simplicity.


    The swordsman eyed the oing tide of corpses, yelling out for some reinforcement, despite the overwhelming quantity of newly risen undead, the guards managed to confine them nearly immediately, preventing them from reaching any of the clients, who were, for the most part,pletely oblivious to the movements of the guards.


    Each of them disyed various sorts of battle arts, most of them wielded swords of varying length, mes burned the cold flesh amidst a variety of other elements, some of them clearly more effective than others.


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    Those utilising arts linked with poisons and venoms found them utterly useless against the reanimated monsters, forcing them to rely on their sheer swordsmanship, it wasn''t too bad since many guards had joined the fight, covering each other and working together to bring down the beasts.


    The undeads were naturally resilient, but considering that they were brand new, they could take a high amount of damage without crumbling down, all thanks to the Loimos''s superior death force coursing through them, they refused to be put down, thrashing around even as the guards sliced off their limbs, forcing them topletely crush the corpses to put them out ofmission.


    The highest-ranked guards working under Lady Syklon were also present, assigned to survey the most dangerous areas of her trades, the three of them clearly left the rest in the dust, taking care of their own bunch of cadavers all by themselves, and without breaking a sweat at that.


    One wielding a de that was much thicker and more curved than the rest, he was much fatter than muscr, a round stomach showed bare to the outside world, he was rotund but powerful and quick nheless, holding hisrge de in one hand and carrying a bottle of booze in the other.


    This must have all been part of his battle art, dousing his de with alcohol, a single strike against the ground produced the necessary spark to lit it in fire, suddenly improving its cutting power, the mes quickly spreading over the dead as he struck them down, kicking the burning remains into the mass of corpses further away, his mes were too potent and forced the beasts to take other routes, these undeads also seemed to inherit some greater thinking skills from the one that arose them.


    Though, that didn''t matter, his aim had always to funnel them into tighter areas to allow the rest to take care of them more easily, in another area, body parts flew into the air, monsters were cleaved apart every second, unable to move past a certain point as one of the three most trusted guards of Lady Syklon unleashed a constant barrages of white shes through the air, simr to the mana shes used by the scaled guard earlier, simply far more potent and controlled with higher precision, the length and the distance they could reach was adjusted to perfectly target the monsters without damaging any of the environment.


    He was an old man, despite his body being all wrinkly, his grey beard beingpletely white on the right side of his face, despite clearly being aged, his movements didn''tck any poise and were steady, swinging his katana with one hand without putting any strain on his body.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    It wouldn''t be impossible for him to take care of all the corpses by himself, although it wouldn''t be nearly as clean.


    Lastly, a young man wielding a spear was running around, dancing amidst the rows of beasts, swinging his spear around stylishly, ripping the carcasses apart with both ends of his spear, be it the ded tip or the wooden end of the handle, both were equally as devastating.


    He never stopped moving for a second, spinning around, and even sliding if needed, dragging the de of his spear on the ground, producing countless sparks, the moment he lifted it off the ground, the sparks stopped midair, transforming into metal nails, shooting out in the direction he swung his weapon, shredding the corpses in their path.


    All in all, the threedy''s favourites, as the others liked to refer to them as, were set to manage the tide, with the assistance of the other guards, no one even got hurt despite the wide disparity in numbers and the strength some of the monsters still possessed.


    Still, it would take about ten more minutes to properly quell the sudden attack without harming the integrity of the area.


    Or so they predicted, the remaining undeads suddenly dispersed into fine red mist alongside all of the already felled corpses, the guards all fell to one knee reflexively.


    Most of them had yet to see thedy do something like this, she was still standing at the entrance of the area they were in, having erased all of the cadavers from dozens of meters away, she wasn''t even holding a sword, her hands still brought together in front of her.


    "You idiots left the dungeon without surveince, did you not?" it was unclear whether her words were specifically targeted, but they all took it to heart and lowered their heads.


    "You are in luck, nothing happened to the core, and you did good taking care of the zombies, but clearly, our intruder wanted to check something down there, reinforce security and check for anything it may have left behind" blessed be the gods, she wasn''t mad.


    But it wouldn''t be the case for long, her subordinates wouldn''t be finding their intruder any time soon as the hand hid back in the little storing area it had first infiltrated, sticking itself in a corner right behind a bunch of crates.


    Loimos''s body outside emerged from the swamp as well, he would have to get inside of there himself.

 Chapter 140 Monkeys

    "Oi, what''s up with those monkeys?" one of the two men stationed to guard the main entrance into Muho Chitai eximed aloud, surprised to even see the monsters at all.


    The humanoid monsters that one could encountermonly in the wild had since long understood that approaching any construction made by the people was a terrible idea, the residents could even forget about their existence as one would never see or hear them whilst hidden within the walls of the city.


    "Hell if I know, are theying over there?" the other man furrowed his brows, the group of monsters only had five members, and they didn''t seem afraid in the least, in fact, they were charging forth with uncanny determination, as though nothing could stop them.


    The monsters stalking the ins in groups were colloquially referred to as monkeys by the people, since they shared lots of things with said animal, however it wasn''t exactly urate.


    The shapes of their heads and body structure was certainly simr, but the monsters were much more apt at creation and utilising tools of various sorts, their jaws were more canine as well, granting them more biting force than one might expect from those little creatures, even the bigger individuals barely reached to the average man''s chest, although, appearing weak and helpless against sapient species, the so-called monkey''s weren''t to be underestimated too much.


    One trying to follow them into their caves would soon discover that the ones prowling the outside world were much like foot soldiers, the strongest members of their species rarely showed themselves, but they definitely would if too many of their precious smaller fellows didn''t return from their expeditions.


    Their bat-like ears perked up, the small group of Derelictus-Mens, as the system had chosen to call them, didn''t back down or hesitate for even a second, running straight for the two guards, their bone daggers ready to tear into flesh, clubs raised high with the intent to break bones.


    The shrill cries they constantly let out seemed to invigor and empower their suicidal resolve even further, the two guards readied their spears, not afraid to deal with them, at thest second, just as the monsters were on the verge of reaching the attack range of the two humans, they suddenly stopped and spread out to surround them.


    "We really just got outsmarted by monkeys" one of them groaned, not expecting the little apes to have such good coordination and wits.


    Though, none of the creatures possessed the means to attack safely, so they just remained out of reach, moving their heads and bodies from left to right, ready to pounce or back off.


    "Shoo! Shoo! Just go away little guys" this did nothing, so the guard cut the crap and stepped forward, stabbing one of them straight through the head, its body went limp, only to suddenly jolt back into action, moving forward, digging the spear deeper until it began to protrude from the back of its skull.


    "What the-" the two guards were taken aback by the tenacity of the monster, twisting the spear didn''t even seem to hurt it, so the guard moved to simply fling the monster, it was basically as light as a little child anyways, but he only took this decision after a few moments.


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    The other Derelictus-Mens grabbed onto their undying brethren and onto the spear, putting their whole weight onto it.


    Two of them joined the stabbed one, the other two screaming at the other guard, grabbing rocks and pebbles from pouches and throwing them wildly, but with good precision.


    None of the men had any idea what was happening, why it was happening, or how to react to all of it, they were just measly arms that weren''t even allowed to step into the manor, they spent all of their times standing at the entrance, doing nothing, the slightest of action that didn''t involve punching drunk people was new to them.


    The second guard struck another of the monster straight through the chest, killing it on the spot, or so it should have, but once again, it tensed and awoken from the mortal wound, reeling its head back and spitting some sort of ck tar onto the guards hands, burning him and making him let go of his spear.


    Stepping back, he tripped onto something, his headnding right at the feet of the three other Derelictus-Mens, staring down on him, their beast-like maws dripping with saliva as they didn''t stop shouting and screaming.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    ''Where the hell is-'' he froze, his colleague wasying on the ground, this was what had caused him to fall on his back so ungracefully, an arrow was struck right through his left eye, he must have died without making a sound.


    The arrow was much toorge to have been shot from a bow wielded by one of the monkeys, but that was the least of his worries right now, one of them wielding a club basically threw itself down on the guard''s face, as the ones carrying bone daggers began stabbing him repeatedly.


    Without waiting for anyone else toe over to see what was going on, the five monsters, two of whom with spears stuck in their bodies, grabbed the corpses and dragged them off into the distance.


    A few people had seen the scene ying out right in front of their eyes, none hade over to help though, they were merely citizens, and honestly, seeing some of the thugs getting attacked wasn''t a horrifying sight, nobody liked them on ount of their poor behaviours and highly dislikable personalities.


    Still, it was rather unexpected to see them get ughtered by a measly group of five monkeys, the arrow that had killed the first one had flown from a great distance away, from within the cover of the swamp.


    One of the witnesses looked around for other guards, the screams of the monsters had already gathered some attention but he figured that they might not bother checking it out, the criminals were too arrogant to believe the Derelictus-Mens could do any damage.


    Unfortunately, said bystander was readily shot in the face, an arrownding straight on his forehead.

 Chapter 141 Well, Thats Awkward

    Arrows rained from the sky with astounding precision, aiming for the regr folks rather than the more adept guards, whose guard was raised the instant they learned of what was happening, projectiles aimed at citizens''s vitals flew in between buildings, following the shape of an arc.


    Some fell to the ground the instant they were hit, others stumbled about for a few seconds as their throats and organs were damaged, few shots missed their marks, although not everyone were struck with lethal wounds, what followed forced all attention to be put on the ones that had been sessfully targeted however.


    The volley of arrows ceased only a minute after it had begun, the deceased suddenly began convulsing, their corpses bloating and decaying at a rapid pace before the sudden umtion of miasma caused them to burst into pieces.


    Mounds of rotten flesh crawled together, gathering random bones before finally forming into rotten hounds and masses of putrefied rats, all of them dispersing all over the city, running past the people and guards, spreading blighted blood as they went.


    "Don''t let any of them hide, thedy is already mad enough!" one of them shouted, the guards ran around like headless chickens, pursuing decayed corpses through the streets, forced to crawl on the ground to find those rats hiding under buildings.


    Unseen by the many people rushing to lock themselves inside their homes, and the guards doing their utmost to not displease theirdy, many skeletal hands clung to the sides of habitations, serving as Loimos''s eyes and ears, allowing him to aim for people that were incredibly far away.


    His initial intrusion inside of the manor taught him valuable information, inspecting the dungeon, which was only a single roomrge, he had been able to detecting a rather faint death force deeper underground, though the shape of the slumbering undead was unclear, Loimos had been able to tell that it was humongous, this didn''t ring any bell concerning named members of the king''s court, but it indicated to him that it was a precious ally nheless.


    This ally was deep underground however, encased in several meters of dungeon rock, which could quickly recuperate the damage dealt to it, his disembodied hand couldn''t reach the undead by itself, and even if it could, it would be a bad idea to awake it this way. Stay tuned for updates on empire


    Lady Syklon would be nearby where the giant creature bursted out of the earth and ripped everything apart, he didn''t know the full extent of her capabilities, but it seemed likely that she would be able to dealing with the undead with ease, as such, Loimos needed to lure her well away from her manor.


    The fact that the undead had been caught into the spatial distortion also meant that Loimos had no choice but to get inside, or to disrupt whatever was the source of it, both were easier said than done.


    To this end, he had regrown and removed his hands multiple times, spreading them all around the city and sending some of them to do some light scouting.


    And he just managed to find out something of interest, coaxing some roaming Derelictus-Mens into doing his bidding was simple enough, they froze right in their track and would stay like this for multiple seconds upon being exposed to the death tongue, from their, instilling the fear of their imminent death required only to walk up to them.


    The two that had died and been swiftly converted into undeads had returned to their cave, where their queen resided.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Letting the guards of Muho Chitai struggle with his created undeads, and the damage they were causing by puking rotten blood everywhere they went, eating away at the wooden structures, and once their time ended, the creations of rot would simply explode, creating nests of rot.


    That would upy them and keep them on their toes for a little while, as the undead headed for the Derelictus-Mens queen, he himself doubted that he could aplish much all on his own, his current mastery of the primeval rot allowed him to gain the advantage in number and to submerge enemies, but that trick would only work on those that were about as powerful as him, or only a bit stronger and not in possession of a way to counter attack on the same scale as the undead.


    Lady Syklon and her three best guards possessed the means to render this meaningless, since he couldn''t just be instantly stronger to remedy to this obstacle, he simply had to enlist some assistance from the natives, the two monsters turned undead were quickly dispatched by the stronger members of their little tribe, immediately noticing that something was wrong with them.


    The other three were still infected with some ck blood, but no obvious signs could be noticed on the outside.


    There was just a slight issue with Loimos''s n, he was well aware that to get the assistance of all of them, he simply needed to get their queen on the move, either by influencing her decisions the same way he did for the scaled swordsman and the five Derelictus-Mens, or by killing her and using the necromantic art.


    He was confident that activating the rotten blood''s corrosive properties within the three he had already infected, using their corpses to fabricate rotten creations would be enough to distract the greater monsters, allowing him to get to the queen.


    And as such, he put his n into motion, sliding rapidly through the small caverns whilst everything inside was distracted by the blood and flesh sshing everywhere, rats emerging from the gory mess.


    The Derelictus-Mens were otherwise easier to distract than the guards at the manor, they barely registered his passage in the confusion, allowing him to arrive before the queen in record time.


    ''This is not going to work out'' he assessed.


    The queen was towering well over Loimos despite being all crooked, her head looked much like that of a dog or wolf that the rest of her kin, she couldn''t reasonably be called a monkey in the least, appearing more like some sort of beastfolk species.


    Her head was adorned by a finely crafted wooden crown, a tattered cape and loincloths covering her bare, and hairless body, appearing emaciated as she gripped onto an exquisite staff, atop of it, a mana crystal carved into a sphere.


    The queen was clearly a mana caster, but what made Loimos conclude that this attempt was for naught was the speed at which he saw said staffing from him, hitting him straight into the chest,unching him out of the cave like a piece of garbage.


    ''I will find another way''

 Chapter 142 Elite

    "Smart one heh?" one of Lady Syklon''s three elitesughed heartily, the other guards apanying him weren''tughing, they were all looking at corpses of theirrades, the limp bodies of the monkeys also lying around, the bodies of theirdy''s forces were riddled with arrows, some of them partially molten, chemical burns all over their skin.


    Their clothes partially fused with the contaminated flesh, it was a disgusting sight, even insects and rodents didn''t dare approach the bodies, for the blight had already taken root within them, their insides were filled with miasma, the organs reduced into mush already, but the bodies had been left still.


    "Must be a threat or something, heheh, what else is happening?" the elite was the shirtless one with an ample belly capable of safely storing away a tarvern''s entire stock of booze, his heavy de resting on his shoulder as per usual.


    He took a swing of one of his bottles as another guard sighed, exining the situation in more detail.


    "As you would know, our foods mostlyes from other minor viges and towns, we get it basically for free thanks to Lady Syklon effective threats and demonstrations, however, the fields and cattle have been under attack, the water sources have been getting repeatedly contaminated by a petroleum-like substances, killing most of the agriculture and animals.


    The waters have been purified many times, however, it keeps getting stronger, not to mention that the priests and priestesses simply can''t keep up with whatever is responsible for it, at this point, they can barely do anything about it, and the crops that didn''t need to be watered have been physically targeted, there is basically nothing left, they are all starved and dehydrated, even the grass, trees and wildlife has been infected and pushed away, we can keep going because we are better protected and thanks to the dungeon being capable of spawning edible monsters, but-" the guards could have gone on for a while longer, but he was stopped by the elite.


    "I get it, the fucker is trying to weaken us, they use the apes as distractions, attack our weaker men, cuts off ess to provisions, as well as pretty much isting us, soon enough, most popted areas beside us will be deserted" he took another swing of alcohol.


    "What about the caravans and carriages?" he realised that he had cut off the guard before he got to those.


    "Unfortunately, the roads have been blocked, the carriages repeatedly raided by seemingly rabid monsters, few are ables of making it anywhere safe, for those that do, their stocks are contaminated anyways, the remains of countless caravans litter the roads, they are only still trying to make it despite the danger because they fear Lady Syklon more than they fear what prowls the wilderness" announced the guard, looking over at his fallenrades.


    The elite smiled, turning to the dozens of guards that were with him.


    "Why don''t we go visit our dear friends? I am certain we will be able to catch the culprit unlike them"ughing boisterously, the guard that had been speaking this entire time couldn''t help but question his decision.


    "Is this thedy''s will?"


    "This is the will Guorzo, Guorzo The Fat! And I have served thedy since before you soft-skins were even born! Skeletal hands roaming our city, intrusion upon her manor, murder of her properties, harming her businesses and directly attacking her wellbeing, we must get our hands on the bastard that dares to oppose her!"


    Striking his chest, he raised his de up in the air.


    "Thedy will be pleased by your contributions and will surely reward you handsomely, so keep you heads high and follow me" Guorzo led the way, it wasn''t like the others had a choice in the matter, without thedy around, the words of the three elites weren''t to be disobeyed.


    Guorzo, referred to as The Fat, or sometimes as Drunken de, had much more intricate thoughts as it might appear at a nce, sure, he was an alcoholic, foul-mouthed, perverted unwashed brute with greasy hair, but his wits were easily on par with thedy''s most trusted, he wouldn''t be considered one of her three elites otherwise.


    He stood at the bottom of the list however, Ohrn, the elder and Abbanh, the youth were respectively first and second, but the spear user was only a ce higher due to his overall prowess, he was too foolish to be trusted with anything other than fighting.


    Guorzo and Ohrn were the only ones that could both serve as her des and as assistants to her businesses.


    ''The cockroach is doing it''s best to undermine Lady Syklon in every way possible, he clearly aims to weaken her and her forces as much as possible, because he can''t stand before us otherwise, one of the three elites apanied by third-rates warriors, abandoning the safety of Muho Chitai to head to barely guarded shitholes were everyone is already dying is not an opportunity he''ll miss¡­ I will be able to earn her praises!'' the drunkard smiled foolishly, but his n wasn''t idiotic, it wasn''t like his absence would make the city raidable all of a sudden.


    Their unknown enemy had to make use of every possible opportunity, even if it was obviously a trap, they had to ovee said trap to hope to progress swiftly.


    Not to mention that Guorzo''sbat skills always had been heavily restrained inside the city and manor, he couldn''t just burn everything or exercise his groundbreaking strength, that would damage hisdy''s properties, which was uneptable.


    Outside, in a random settlement that barely had any value, he could go all out to ensure that his n worked out, he purposefully set out for the furthest vige possible, by now, some of the guards were catching onto what he was nning, but they couldn''tin.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Your journey continues with empire


    "Oh, were we expected?" grinning, his yellowed teeth showing in all theirck of glory as he arrived before the entrance of a small camp-like settlement, it had mostly been thriving thanks to cattle, so it had quickly ran into problems.


    Right at the entrance, the guards hesitated, two corpses were hanging from the wooden walls surrounding the living areas, badly dposed, the entire ce overrun by carrion birds, which were all rotting as well, yet, they still flew around, staring at the living with unconcealed intent.


    "Hum¡­" the guard from earlier wanted to emit his doubts but was cut off.


    "The cowards will be burned, let''s go and visit our dear little troublemaker"


    And so, they all stepped inside.

 Chapter 144 Eye Of The Storm

    Amidst the smoke, mes and debris, Guorzo spotted Loimos''s gloved hand reach for something, grasping a nearby table, crushing the portion he gripped upon before throwing the entire thing straight at the elite, then a chair, then closet, everything and nothing that was within reach.


    ''Impressive strength, he doesn''t seem to be using a battle art either¡­'' in that department, the ming swordsman was no slouch either, swinging his de and rendering the furniture to splinters, one punch from his free hand enough topletely nullify the heavy closet.


    He made small movements to evade knives and other cutlery swung his way, only for his opponent to next pick up a fallen beam of the home partially charred, Loimos threw it straight at, not like a javelin, using the entire width of the piece of wood to force Guorzo to destroy the projectiles, using this opportunity to slip away as arrows began raining from multiple directions.


    "You freaking rat!" it was obvious that Loimos was trying to go for a battle of attrition, and since he was the one to initiate it, the elite could only assume that it was because he was confident in winning it.


    Roaring and puffing his chest out, a white smoke seemed to surround the living for a short instant, the next volley of arrows harmless bouncing off of his body as he rushed toward one of the habitations, using his overwhelming strength and reigniting his de to demolish it.


    Spinning his sword above his head, he created a veritable whirlwind of fire, from there on out, as long as he maintained the miniature tornado, he would be able tounch destructive mes without losing the infernal coating on his weapon.


    Bringing every house down one after the other, he expected to see Loimos emerge from one of them at any second, but instead, he saw the putrid warrior somehownd behind him from the corner of his eyes.


    Although he called it a tornado, it was merely the creation of his fiery battle art, it was shaped like a cone and a few meters taller than himself at its peak, nothing prevented anything froming from above, but it wasn''t everyday that someone would even notice, even less try it and seed.


    ''I haven''t shown this move in ages! He figured out the weak point in so little time?!'' Guorzo had to give it to him, Loimos was attentive and certainly brave toe into the eye of the storm.


    "Haha! You''re a disrespectful little shit, but you have balls, I''ll break you!" positively thrilled, Guorzo didn''t hesitate to plunge his sword deep into the ground.


    The storm expanded and closedpletely, the force of the storm all around them increasing alongside the temperature.


    "I misjudged your character, for my arena to enclose and power up like this, it means that you epted the challenge" Guorzo''s battle art wasn''t nearly as simple as it might appear, whilst others would focus on the main aspect of their art, reinforcing it to grow more powerful and make their attacks increasingly harder to defend against, the well-fed elite enjoyed challenges, in that way, he was more honourable than his peers.


    Facing enemies at their full prowess was something that he deemed most important than everything else as long as they were deserving of his attention, rather than crush them swiftly before they could show off, he would allow it, and by defeating them then, he ultimately demonstrated his superiority in every way.


    How could he face hisdy if his strength was nothing more than a supposition? When he never forced himself to push his limits? Taking the easy way out might be the best, smarter option, but it wouldn''t lead to nearly as much progress and satisfaction.


    Killing a dragon in its sleep didn''t make you a dragonyer, it was facing it head on that granted you the title.


    And Guorzo, he was the dragon here.


    "Let''s see whose funeral this will be!" stomping on the end of his de, he forced it so deep underground that getting it back would be a hassle, but this made it certain that the tornado wouldn''t be dispersed.


    Taking up a sumo stance, the elite''s palms ignited with mes for a brief instant, meanwhile, Loimos unsheath his de, the darkness coating it flickering for a few moments before dispersing, the strain of the surrounding inferno destroying the aesthetic enchantment once and for all. Continue reading stories on empireN?v(el)B\\jnn


    Strapped over his back, multiple katana''s he had gathered from the dead before throwing himself into the fray, his tattered mantle fluttering chaotically amidst the waves of heat striking him, seeing his opponent unfaltering despite the condition excited Guorzo, raising one leg high up, he struck the ground once more, this time, starting the duel for good.


    They both moved at the same time, one enhancing his already outrageous strength and speed with his burning battle art, the other, his undead physique amplified by death force, his movements made even more unpredictable and swift by coating his entire body with ck blood.


    Guorzo didn''t dilly dally and threw a punch with no intention of stopping it, shattering the ground as Loimos dodged it by a hair''s breadth, twisting his body in painful-looking contortions, spinning around the living by sliding along the ground, attempting to stab the elite in the side, despite his confidence in his defences against such a worn out de, but he didn''t dare to underestimate his foe at such a time, and moved away, repositioning himself in just a moment beforending a hit straight as the stomach of Loimos with his knee.


    His blow was cushioned as ayer of blood and rot appeared in between the two of them, he still felt the distinct sensation of bones breaking, the undead grabbed onto his leg, stabbing the sword straight at his ankle without reacting in any way to the damage inflicting upon him, something of perfect naturality to Loimos, but to the elite that was still oblivious, it was a sign that his opponent was not nearly a pushover, he grinned broadly, the short sword stolen from a death hunter shattered, leaving only a faint cut.


    Another swing of the leg and Loimos was thrown off, his back hitting against the edges of the arena, the storm pushing him back in, rolling off the ground, he carried on the momentum the inferno had graciously given him, continuing his path by rushing forward like a four-legged beast.


    Rot began topress all over the battleground.

 Chapter 145 Charred Black

    Loimos suddenly broke his momentum, standing up and halting as though his feet were stuck to the ground, just before hepletely lost his haste, he grabbed hold of one of the three katanas he had in reserve and threw it at the living, the sword spinning through the air like disc as he riled up arge amount of blighted blood, rising up a high wave obstructing Guorzo''s sight as it approached.


    Unafraid, the elite tilted his head back and unleashed a single fireball from his mouth, eradicating the tidal wave in one go, as was expected, Loimos didn''t stay idle, and moved up to one of the marble-sized,pressed rot, crushing it with a p of his hands, propelling the condensed bullet of corrosive blood directly at its target.


    ''That''s much faster than the rest of his attacks!'' surprised, but still all smiles, he blocked the dense blood bullet, the blood quickly evaporated in contact with his body, but it left a nasty chemical burn on his forearm nheless.


    The undead moved from one marble-sized bullet to the other, but the living went on the move, hitting true on his target wasn''t nearly as simple when they were moving at wild speed, in no time, Guorzo arrived before Loimos, hitting him in the chest with a ming punch, which went straight through his chest without budging the undead as he deliberately moved his bones and made the targeted area brittle, it was in this instant that realisation finally dawned on the elite, as Loimos''s coat and clothes burst apart, revealing his ribs, their shape and length deformed as he basically turned his chest into some sort of bear trap, the death enhanced bones tearing through the living''s arm as he spurted acidic blood in every direction.


    Bursting into mes, Guorzo wasn''t going to allow even a drop of the blighted blood to enter his system even for a second, gritting his teeth as the pain surged through him, he turned the intense suffering into fuel for his strength as forced Loimos up in the air before violently throwing him to the ground, ribs still stuck in his arm as forcefully broke out of the undead''s hold.


    Looking like he had fallen from the clouds, Loimos, got himself back onto his feet, he had only lost the great majority of his ribs, nothing serious, his opponent however, he had lost ess to his dominant arm.


    Guorzo''s right arm gushed with blood for a few moments before ayer of mes came to stop the bleeding, not the safest way of tending to his wounds, but he didn''t have much of a choice, his muscles had been torn apart, and he was fairly certain smalls bits of the bone in his forearm had been broken off.


    His limb wasn''tpletely useless, but he couldn''t punch with it unless he wanted to worsen the injury, such nasty wounds weren''t as easy to heal as clean cuts, Loimos''s attacks were anything but clean, in every sense of the term.


    Even then, he applied ayer of ck blood to the de of a katana, the second one in his arsenal as he came swinging at the elite, imitating the movements he had witnessed before, mixed in with his own ir.


    Seamlessly mixing his natural capability atmitting untold brutality, the skilled movements that could be make heads turn and fall, as well as the utterly bestial maneuvers, Guorzo was once more surprised, but not as much as before, now knowing that his enemy was an undead made things much more difficult.


    ''No wonder he tried to go for a battle of attrition, he literally can''t lose no matter what he does!''


    He groaned in pain as he moved around, his arm itching, it was like hundreds of ants were burrowing underneath his skin, unpleasant, but not exactly the first time he got hurt this badly.


    ''I yed exactly how he wanted, cheeky bastard!'' gritting his teeth into a grin, his entire body began to be coated in mes, the heat rose up so much that Loimos''s clothes began to catch fire, cracking and getting out of shape.


    Guorzo messed up and got harmed, being incapable of even slightly bending the truth in front of hisdy, he would have to exin his idiotic mistake after failing to even consider the possibility after seeing the rot, undeads and everything else, all that was left to do was to crush the enemy.


    Frankly, he didn''t know much about undeads, he really knew nothing, no one had ever spoken of undeads, he had never seen one, heard of one anywhere before, he only knew the most basic of things about them, in Tochi, they were incredibly rare, even vampires rarely appeared despite being rather infamous in most ces.


    He only knew one thing, he was wounded, he had been tricked once, and hisck of knowledge could mean that he could be tricked again, as such, he had to employ his maximum power to end this fight right at this instant, even if doing so when unaware of the extent of your opponents capabilities was foolish.


    He had to take the gamble.


    "For Lady Syklon!" shattering the sword Loimos was holding, or rather, dispersing the molten iron as he struck it with his fist, kicking up at Loimos, pulling part of the ground alongside the strike, the undead went up in mes, but was quickly put out as he sweated liters upon liters of blood to counteract the fire.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    But he was still pushed up in the air, without a good footing, even if he could twist himself into a box, his room for movements and evasions was lessened nheless, not that it mattered, Guorzo didn''t intend on pushing and kicking, instead, he breathed in, expanding his lungs to their maximum capacity.


    Using his art without alcohol was possible, it was simply much more straining, using booze made it much simpler, but resulted in less power, the opposite was also true, this was how his battle art had been created, and he wouldn''t have it any other way.


    Like a dragon, a potent stream of fire crashed into Loimos, it was like the mes were physical, damaging him like the blowsing from countless maces as it pushed him up against the fiery storm, tearing him apart from two opposite sides.


    The elite focused harder as he felt a deluge of ck blood pushing up against him, but in the end, his strength was greater, the storm ceased,unching the burning corpse right into the remnants of a carriage, which also went up in mes.


    "If the arena was released, then it means that you''re done for!" Guorzo breathed heavily, his lungs burning, his muscles aching, he hadn''t been expecting such a challenge when he first came here.


    He tried reaching for one of his bottles of booze, but they had all sumbed to the intense heat, he was out of stock.


    "Oh damn- It?" his eyes widened. Continue your saga on empire


    Why was a zing figure walking toward him? A mask fell to the ground, turning to ashes.


    A darkened skeleton loomed over the kneeling elite, most of its ribs missing.


    ''But the arena was released! I felt the experience surge, how-''


    He tried getting up to his feet, he somehow managed, but it wasn''t steady.


    Murderous teeth moved, striking against one another with a sickening ck.


    Loimos didn''t look great, his bones were charred, his left arm was missing its hand, consumed when he held it forward to block the fiery breath, his back partially shaved away by the powerful raging hot winds.


    But he was still standing, and as an undead, still perfectly able to fight at full power.

 Chapter 146 The Burning

    Guorzo breathed in, his tense and aching muscles rxing, he rose both hands up, even his mangled arm would have to do some work, sweat covered in body, his hair sticking to his face as he stared ahead at the loathsome undead.


    The elites battle art of fire was off-limit for him at the moment, with his sword embedded in the ground, and all of his alcohol destroyed, he couldn''t even utilise the more basic arts of his kit, as for the rest, it would cause his body to break for certain, he still had other battle arts, of course, as one of Lady Syklon''s top dogs he had been allowed to get his hands on some of her stashed up arts.


    Thinking of hisdy, Guorzo could only steel his resolve, he had sworn to follow her, not only because she was beautiful, she was also the unrivalled master of battle arts, a genius capable of easily creating new arts, to modify existing ones and her own personal arts were enhanced through ways that the mediocre contemporaries couldn''t even fathom, it was all about natural talent and understanding of the intricate weave of bothbat and battle arts.


    He did not understand why she bothered with all of those affairs when she had what it took to govern this country and to expand it, but he could never question her, Guorzo could only think about how disappointed she would be if he was defeated like this.


    The undead hadn''t used a single art during their entire fight! It was nothing but pure brawn and natural capabilities, the elite could tell, he wasn''t just facing off against a powerful and crafty undead, something he couldn''t quiteprehend was standing before him, something he could not quite fathom, just like hisdy.


    Smoke was rising up from Loimos''s bones, dust sipping from his hollow sockets, the putrid skeleton he was, was nowhere to be seen, the rot that naturally grew from his filthy white bones was utterly gone, his body turned pitch ck by soot and fire damage.


    He had yet to experience this, to be struck with such a devastating blow, it had actually impacted his capabilities, he could not produce any rot or anything at the moment, his control over the existing puddles of dark blood was also weak and sluggish.


    With most of his ribcage gone, he only had part of his natural body at his disposal, the bone ws and spikes were reduced to smithereens before he could even pull them out, that was unfortunate.


    Reading the fear, apprehension, but also the determination in the living''s eyes, Loimos reached down and picked something off from the embrace of ashes, a de that had seen better days, but perfectly capable of cutting through his weakened opponents.


    The two began walking toward one another, ignoring the small settlement that was burning to the ground around them, the two suns bearing down on them, their shadows slowly reduced in size as they got progressively closer to the point right beneath the twin stars.


    Guorzo made the first move, pulling his strength together to stomp the ground, raising up the ash, Loimos shed right through without hesitation, evading a punch aimed at his skull, missing his sh as the elite lowered his body, attempting to sweep the corpse''s legs.


    Rather than dodging, Loimos challenged his resolve and stabbed the katana into the ground, de facing the iing leg, Guorzo''s groaned and hastily stopped his manoeuver, the undead didn''t even bother getting the sword back, using the fact that therge warrior had deliberately reduced his height to kick up ash into his face.


    The living refused to close his eyes, blocking a punch from Loimos with his wounded arm and pushing the skeleton away, the pain was unimaginable, but it helped him stay focused, the elite rushed forward, kicks and punches were quickly exchanged.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Loimos maintained his superiority in speed and evasion,nding multiple hits on Guorzo, yet the man was flinching, taking every hit and attempting to grab Loimos, or so it appeared, once more stomping the ground, this time with a minor battle art he had never bothered to train, the force was barely enough to make the cadaver''s feet leave the ground for a split second.


    Guorzo didn''t miss this time, his unhurt fist striking the undead, though Loimos managed to shift his head so that only his lower jaw was crushed, it wasn''t nned to get hit, but he saw a great asion.


    His feetnding on hard ground once more, he didn''t move away and instead dug his upper teeth into the living''s arm, running forward and leaving deep gashes at the cost of getting swept away once more.


    The elite cursed, that trade wasn''t worth it in the least, the undead wasn''t bothered by the loss he faced, sure, he wouldn''t be able of using his bite, but that wouldn''t impact him negatively, Guorzo on the other hand, was bleeding profusely, his left arm wasn''t damaged as extensively as the other but he couldn''t cauterise the wound, ash was falling onto and into the injury.


    Loimos picked up the sword from earlier, and arrows pierced through the air.


    The living hadn''t forgotten about the archers and readily activated the same battle art that had protected him from earlier, but the arrows were severely weaker than before, not escaping his notice, Guorzo was surprised at how quickly his brain was functioning right now.


    He had never experienced such rity before, it would be exhrating in other circumstances.


    ''The archers are weak, he isn''t using his abilities from earlier, and he hasn''t made any move with those dark puddles that were everywhere earlier¡­''


    It would seem like the archers were all actually just the undead himself, as if to confirm his thoughts, Guorzo taught sight of movement on the roof of a building that had yet to burn down, the archers were nothing more than piles of rot with skeletal arms attached onto them.


    There was no time to gloat about his investigative skills, Loimos once again threw a sword straight at him, this time,unching it like a javelin, rushing forward himself.

 Chapter 148 Paint It Red

    "Aherm, Guorzo is nowhere to be found, it seems likely that he perished, the settlements, viges and small towns that had been facing famine all vanished in their entirety, it seems that not a single person has survived, we have tried to push further, but although they are still standing, the previously inhabited areas have be nesting grounds for the monkeys¡­" a shivering guard reported, not daring to look up from the written reports he was reading from, afraid to met the freezing re of hisdy.


    "Guorzo, Guorzo¡­" her head resting against her hand, she was leaning against a brand new desk.


    "My Lady, there is nothing to worry about, Guorzo''s passing is unfortunate, but he wasn''t an important piece of your force, and seeing the methods utilised by our enemy, it is clear that it is not the work of the royals or of any powerful faction, I would wager that their gueri tactics imply a small group, or a lone-" Ohrn spoke up, only to be suddenly silenced, keeling over to one knee.


    "Did you feel the need tofort me Ohrn? Guorzo was a fool, but don''t forget that you are on the same standing as him from my perspective, I invested in him, his progress was satisfactory for his poor level and depraved tendencies, do you understand?


    My investment, my trust was killed, what are you going to do about it?" she calmly turned to both Ohrn, Abbanh as well as the rest of the guards present for this little assembly.


    Just as they were about to respond, a young guard rushed into the office.


    Enjoy new adventures from empire


    He stopped instantly and stiffened up, Lady Syklon motioned for him to get to speaking already.


    "My Lady, word is that the royals have heard of what is happening, they don''t know much but many of them see this as a sign of weakness, they might believe that you are vulnerable¡­" he said stopping before he could continue as he made the mistake of looking her in the eyes, shutting up instinctively.


    "The sharks are smelling blood, well, they''ve never liked me very much, I don''t appreciate their ball-less behaviour either, they are only breathing because I couldn''t care less about their existence, did they mistake my graciousness for passivity? Do they think that Lady Syklon is a little pushover because someone has cut my supply lines?


    Very well then, very well" she walked past everyone, her face impassive, as captivating as always.


    No one dared to stare for too long however, she put her hand on the hilt of her de.


    "Ohrn, you are in charge of dealing with the cockroach, maintain activities, or cease them for a while if you wish, I want that foul thing gone by the time Ie back, I will be paying a visit to the dear leaders of this nation, a little stroll if you will, it is high time that they remember that this country was built with might" sheughed a little bit, a rarity that sent shivers down some spines, or that warmed the heart of those that didn''t understand what thatugh meant.


    Just like that Ohrn was put in charge, a heavy burden to carry, he couldn''t possibly disappoint hisdy, she was trusting him with her entire business, the elite was aware that she didn''t truly value it as much as she made it seem, but still, it was something that had been built with her own two hands.


    It might as well be pure gold in Ohrn''s eyes, gold so beautiful that entire nations would fight to the death to eveny their eyes on, he couldn''t imagine himself putting it on pause for any reason.


    "As you wish, have a good travel mydy" he recited, soon followed by everyone else, once she set her mind to it, Last Syklon pretty much vanished from the city, Ohrn predicted that it would take her a week to get to the royal lodgings, about ten minutes to ughter everything and everyone if she took her time, so all in all, he had two weeks to get her orders done with.


    It had already been a week since Guorzo''s supposed death, it was hard to say if he was truly dead since no body had been found, but his loyalty was firm, he couldn''t have run away even if he hadmitted a mistake that warranted his execution, the elites of Lady Syklon weren''t only so because of might, but also because they couldn''t betray her.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The office was soon cleared of all the lesser guards, leaving only the old man and the second elite.


    "Abbanh, I trust that I don''t need to tell you that we must get it done as quickly as possible, but we can''t just both go onto the hunt, our enemy is a filthy rat, but much like the rodent, he is cunning, he only attacked Guorzo because he was alone, an opportunity they couldn''t miss on, he couldn''t fight with help for the live of him, you and I can, and won''t be tricked so foolishly"


    "I don''t n on halting Lady Syklon''s businesses, we might not be getting any new customer due to the constant attacks on the roads, but plenty are still around, they are afraid of leaving, and in dire need to get their minds elsewhere, we can squeeze them dry of everything they own, the record profit, plus the annoyance being dealt with will surely please ourdy, not to mention, her mood will be high after murdering the royals, we mustn''t sour it"


    Ohrn stroked his beard, his white apparel fluttering as he quickly walked toward the door, followed by Abbanh.


    "We simply need to decide who will be in charge of what-"


    "I''ll leave you the administrative stuff and all that crap, I can''t run a business at all! I''ll take a small force and scour the surroundings and ins for the critter, he has been using the monkey to assist him, I''ll visit the areas they inhabit as well" the spearman didn''t hesitate.


    Ohrn had expected this, but he was still disappointed, Guorzo had been foolish, but he had had a good enough head on his shoulders to multi-task, Abbanh was nothing but a meathead, a glorified enforcer.


    "Very well, with me here, you can just take our best men, if you die, thedy will despise you" warning his younger fellow, Ohrn watched over one of the main areas, which would soon be filled by customers.

 Chapter 149 Skeletons New Clothes

    Loimos had been left without a right arm, a lower jaw, pretty much incapable of using his rot, charred and surrounded by a smouldering inferno, also, he had lost all of his gear, procuring some swords would be easy, he still had a few bows intact as well, but he was in dire need of some protective gear.


    Although, the main purpose of wearing clothes had always been to keep it hidden from his foes that he was actually an undead, they had no idea that their enemy couldn''t grow exhausted and wascking many vitals, or that pain was an obscure concept to him, right now, it would be difficult to keep the act going.


    The undead also felt like he had just unlocked something as well, his death force was no longer the same, or rather, the way he was circting was different, it seemed like he had just gotten an enlightenment in the middle of the fight, leading him to switch up his strategy and justnd the most devastating punch he had ever hit someone with, it was potent, but it had also seemed like something else was at y.


    His maniption of his death force wasn''t that good just yet, it had felt like his bones strengthened through other means as well, and that the death force reinforcement applied itself over multiple things in his arm, resulting in a killing blow, but also in the destruction of his limb.


    He could not reproduce the second effect, but how to use his death force was now imprinted upon him, he could already tell exactly how to use it to achieve better performances, but first, he needed to recover his lost bones, his new mastery would quicken the process for certain.


    Since he couldn''t produce anything at the moment, he went and fetched what he had already created before and gathered it all, slowly manifesting it all into a cocoon of rot for him to get in and recuperate thanks to the production of miasma.


    Hiding himself, it was surprisingly fast, way faster than it used to be, although he had done and ughtered a lot of livings since thest time he had to do such a thing, but circting his death force through his primeval rot and miasma also helped.


    It only took him a full day toe back to peak capabilities, from there, he went and got rid of the various ces he had turned into ghost towns, they had only been meant as potential traps, now that he had yed one of the elites, it shoulde to reason that such an asion wouldn''te again.


    So he went ahead and added more fuel to his primeval rot, his production of bones was already significantly faster than before, but he did not decay everything, he was in need of some clothing.


    He first wrapped his now filthy-white-again bones intoyers of random pieces of fabrics, filling it all with the maximum amount of rot and tying everything into ce using ropes, resembling some sort of bodybag, which was urate to what was inside.


    Covering everything with the clothing of a swordsman, Loimos wasn''t aware of what those articles of clothing were actually called, but they were excessively easy to move in, some sort of dark red, ample pants that could almost be mistaken for some sort of extra long dress from afar.


    And a clean white shirt, the entire thing fastened in ce by a type of rope, by the end of it, Loimos actually just ended up looking like a stalwart kendo practitioner, but with actual swords.


    The wide sleeves only reached about to the skeleton''s elbows, so the assortment of random sheets and clothes maddeningly stuck to his bones and rot with ropes was still visible, inplete dichotomy to the rest of his get up, well, alongside his face.


    He just looked like a Tochi-voured sad faced man, the arms could be exined, but the head was simply too noticeably weird, he didn''t want to be noticed as suspicious too quickly, or at least, be seen as suspicious, but as a regr suspicious errant swordsman instead.


    So he added twost touches to his disguise, a red mask, an red oni mask, the local version of ogres, or so Loimos supposed, with that stuck to his wrapped-up head, as well as an oversized straw hat, he should be able to approach people closer than otherwise.


    In any case, all that mattered was that his identity as an undead was perfectly concealed.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    He didn''t rush anything and waited to see what would be happening now that one of the elite had been in, he still add many skeletal hands roaming Muho Chitai, some had been found and destroyed, but surprisingly, the one hidden inside the manor had managed to resist the search efforts, probably due to the fact that they must have assumed it had wandered back outside somehow, that or the guards had really managed to miss it for all this time, they had been rather silent inside of there.


    Sitting in a tree, hidden by the colourful foliage, Loimos was able to witness Abbanh, the spear wielder, leave alongside arge number of skilled-looking fellows, their life force matched those of what Loimos had deemed to be the upper-echelon of guards, those that primarily guarded the inside of the manor.


    Abbanh first scoured the surroundings of the city, but Loimos was much further away than this, and using hands with high vantage points, he could track their movements as he wished, always stayingpletely opposite to their position, he wouldn''t want to get too close to a skilled warrior like the elite, he would most certainly be detected.


    The undead watched, observed as the forces slowly went further and further away from the city, judging by the numbers, only the lowly outside patrols, lesser criminals with little actual skills were left inside the walls, maybe with few of the actual guards, but Ohrn was also in there. Enjoy new stories from empire


    It would have been preferable if the old man had gone outside instead of Abbanh, the younger elite''s art was much simpler for Loimos to counter, his projectiles are small and thus hardly effective against skeletons.


    The bright shes of the elder were certain to take Loimos apart, but he would work with what he had.


    He could go into the city and wreak havoc before retreating, but there was something better to do, Loimos had a great way to ensure that both of the elites would be very busy when it was time for the undead to storm the city, the manor and free his fellow.


    Although, there was one thing to look out for, where was Lady Syklon?


    The undead had no clue.

 Chapter 150 Putrid Ploy

    Abbanh could not allow even a single stone to be left unturned, the loyalty Lady Syklon inspired in her followers wasmendable, Loimos could certainly see the natural charisma and presence required to bend sapient, living humans to one''s will without the use of any outside means, he himself could only do so by catching hold of their life with his own two hands, and even then, it wasn''t certain to work with all of them.


    The littledy was simply a natural born leader, few other individuals could boast being able to have such powerful men following after them, it required strength, but also so much more, to inspire trust and confidence, true loyalty without even purposefully fishing for such results.


    It was impressive, it really was, Loimos being unbiased even to the good points of the living he encountered could only acknowledge her authority, he could also see how it could be exploited however, Abbanh, Ohrn, Guorzo, they simply went further and beyond into everything they did for the beloveddy.


    The spearman had to find and defeat Loimos in her stead, for he had damaged her business, her goods, the undead hadmitted what her elites considered a cardinal sin, fueled by both the desire to honour her order and his own willingness to avenge her loss, Abbanh was driven by the two most powerful wants he had ever experienced.


    He was willing to put himself into harm''s way, all to not miss any corner the scorned skeleton might be holed up against, there was no need for Loimos to put any efforts into luring him into the perfect ce.


    The young elite could recognise that an area was prone to ambushes, and instead of avoiding it, he would charge in to push his target to show itself, the instant Loimos would appear before him, a fight the undead could not win with one hundred percent certainty would break out, and that wasn''t taking the rest of the forces following Abbanh.


    Facing his enemies head-on was not something Loimos tended to do, standing atop of a high cliff, he overlooked therge group of experienced warriors walking into a circr opening in the side of a small mountain, the disposition could allow one to have the high ground over them, on multiple levels at that.


    The spear wielder knew this, and he hoped Loimos would bite, just like he had bitten with Guorzo, the situation was much more favourable too, Loimos could have easily ced many of archer arms around, he could have ced rot bombs to copse the ce in and trap them in.


    Those circumstances had been thought of by both Loimos and Abbanh.


    Much like the undead knew how to use the loyalty held toward Lady Syklon, he was well aware of how to use the psyche and instincts of other denizens as well.


    The livings were greeted by a growing rumbling, shrill cries carried far by the air, growing in intensity and numbers, they grew more and more hateful by the seconds.


    "Is this¡­?" Abbanh and his men did not take long to realise what was going on.


    Loimos had been using the Derelictus-Mens as footsoldiers, of course it was ounted in Abbanh''s theories on what could be thrown at them, but he hadn''t gone further than the mere, little monkeys.


    The small monsters were less intelligent than humans and other civilised species, that was a fact, they appeared weak to those unaware of their society, but that was because the small groups one could encounter on the outside and simple hunters and gatherers, hunting small preys and moving with few numbers to hide from bigger predators.


    Incapable of distinguishing between powerful powerful people and regr folks, they had the reputation of rushing towards their death, but it was simply due to a misunderstanding, they could target so many humans and intelligent races travelling the nes with their numbers without problem, they grew convinced that all were preys and ended up dead once their luck ran out.


    Loimos had observed them for a long while, his encounter with one of their queens taught him about the strength they could possess, were they led by a queen and her regents¡­


    ''They are fiercely loyal to the collective, just as much as you are to yourdy''


    One simply needed to be able to remotely kill and control the actions of a great deal of the lesser members of the Derelictus-Mens tribes, so many deaths, and using a few of them to point at a cause, Loimos could do that.


    Painting the walls of their safe caverns with the blood of their brethren, tricking them, Loimos unleashed five queens and their tribes upon Abbanh and his troops.


    Each queen had dozens of consorts, or so Loimos referred to them as, muchrger, and stronger males, and below the consorts, were all of the others, hundreds of them, without a shed of fear or apprehension.


    The shouts of their queens empowered the subjects as a whole, through the use of a natural battle art, the consorts shouted as well, applying anotheryer of this art upon those below them and to themselves.


    Discover hidden stories at empire


    Like a wave magma, the initial sh swallowed many of the guards, unprepared to have to fight dozens of frenzied monsters at the same time, bone daggers were stabbed into the legs, pushed to the ground and killed without even having the asion to wiping out their well-honed battle arts.


    The second sh did not go much better, the consorts jumped above the others, protecting the weaker monsters from the guards, the third sh, the queens waved the finely crafted wands they had received from unknown sources, unleashing simple, yet devastating spells.


    On top of being the physically strongest, the queens were somehow all mages, knowledgeable on how to circte mana and how to create spells, simple shards and bullets of basic mana, but also moreplicated spells.


    A deluge of bestial fury and calcted magic rained down on the unprepared guards, the so-called elites allowed to guard the halls of the manor were crushed by the monkey''s they looked down upon.


    Abbanh could not believe his eyes, his senses as a whole, was all of this really happening? Were they really being ughtered by lesser beings? Beast with no knowledge of martial arts beyond their instincts? Monsters which only battle art was one they used without realising, something they had not learned but been born with? Could proud warriors like them really fall against such things?


    Abbanh was confident in his strength, fighting against overwhelming numbers never bothered him, facing a few consorts was one thing, but even a single queen inspired dread in his heart.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The queens were overwhelmingly powerful naturally, their bodies were simply superior, and they were even permitted to learn magic? How was that possibly fair?


    "Don''t grow arrogant, monsters that lived but a few steps away could defeat you with one hand behind their back if you are not careful, monsters you know use numbers, or are merely glorified animals, the true monsters have an inborn advantagepared to us, if they wear the title of king or queen, I expect a decade before you and your poor talent canfortably challenge one without getting injured" he remembered the words of hisdy, gripping his spear with resolve.


    He could not disappoint her.

 Chapter 152 Walk In

    Ohrn stood over a multitude of papers and parchments, it had only been a few days since hisdy had gone away but as he had predicted, he could really produce a ton of money thanks to the circumstances, many big wigs of the criminal underworld had been around and had had no choice but to remain inside, those cowards afraid to step outside despite being surrounded by their own, personal bodyguards, but that was a good thing for business.


    The elite knew that he could drain them of their money, he saw them as nothing but degenerates, and thus, he agitated what made their brain activate in front of their clouded eyes, Lady Syklon would be very pleased with the results.


    Now, Abbanh simply needed toe back with the head of the rat to ensure maximum satisfaction of theirdy.


    ''It''s all looking good'' he nodded his head, feeling content.


    "Sir, Sir!" but of course, there were always problems to deal with.


    "What is the matter this time? Are some of our guests causing problems again?" he asked with a sigh, lifting his sight from the many papers, seeing the pale-faced guard, out of breath.


    "Oh my, is it urgent?"


    "Sir, ten- No! Dozens of monkey queens are approaching with their packs, they look rather displeased about something, they keep screaming and howling!"


    Ohrn looked at the guard silently for a second.


    "What the fuck did you just say?! How many? How many did you say? Are they all grouped up together, or are they approaching from different sides? Answer me!" he grabbed the poor man by the shoulders and shook him around with his superior strength, racking the guard''s brain around.


    "A great portion are packed up anding from the north, the rest areing from every direction-" just as he exined this, the manor shook a bit, ever so slightly, but the fact that they felt it from inside of their meant that whatever caused it was actually rather potent.


    "Damnit, I''ll take care of the north by myself, you lot protect the city from the rest, try to draft the men of some of our dear guests, they are all in danger after all!" Ohrn rushed away faster than the guard could see, he saluted without realising that he was now alone and ran off soon after to ry the order.


    The elite was able of confirming the poor state of affair they found themselves in, one of the queens that had been a little pissed off by the machinations of a certain goober had mastered a form of explosive magic, blue,et-like projectiles flew over the city,nding into building and in the middle of the street, her casting speed wasn''t too much, but Ohrn had to deal with this one as quickly as possible, thankfully, she was positioned in the north.


    Taking a vantage point, the elder was able to evaluate the damage the city would endure already, Lady Syklon would be displeased.


    ''What the hell happened? The Derelictus-Mens know not to approach the city to avoid danger, Lady Syklon had made it clear not to purposefully hunt their hunting parties either, what could we have done to enrage so many queens to take actions personally?'' Ohrn had questions but no one to answer them, he rushed over to where the greater majority of the monsters were gathered.


    Quickly demonstrating that the gap between the first and second elite was vast, his battle art, whilst rather simple in nature, was unblockable and nearly unavoidable for both the lesser monsters and the consorts, tearingrger chunks of them apart with just a few white shes.


    Unfortunately, the queens were true monstrosities, and their staves were robust enough to block and deflect his shes, the queens focused their fire on him, forcing him to move around, he could take on a single queen rather easily, but there were more than five here, apanied by their troops and consorts.


    He didn''t doubt his chances, it would simply take a while, who knew what could happen to the city whilst he battled here? Continue reading at empire


    ''It would appear that Lady Syklon is absent'' Loimos threw the maximum amount of Derelictus-Mens he could gather to attack the city, he had to use everything he could to restrain the likes of her even for a slight moment, but for reasons he hadn''t been made privy to, she was not here, the elder elite was doing good, but it would take him a long while to clear the northern portion.


    Loimos casually stepped into the city, with monsters flooding the streets, the people and guards couldn''t care less about him in particr, amidst the monsters, he just looked like a person, a miscalction that resulted in a few fighters to get their necks swiftly cut as the undead passed by.


    Allowing his corpse reek to permeate him and his surroundings, infusing it with death force, he ensured that the frenzied monsters distinguished him from the rest, after all, Loimos had made sure that they would believe that the ones responsible for their losses were the people of here.


    It wasn''t perfect, but smelling like a putrefied mound of excrement-filled cadavers did not make him very appealing to approach or confront.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Loimos made his way to the manor, pushing the guards standing in front of the entrance with a wave of ck blood, kicking the doors open into an area for customers to gather, various elevated scenes were performers would typically be were left empty, the customers currently inside were cowering or too inhibited to notice anything, they were still plentiful however, the morning was barely rising after all, their debaucheries were supposed tost until noon.


    Loimos''s arrival wasn''t unnoticed, in fact, the guards inside, which were far from the usual forces, were already tense, having been staring at the entrance with fervour, expecting monsters to start pouring in at any second.


    But only Loimos appeared, he was shot at despite not looking like an invading creature, receiving dozens of arrows straight to the chest, meagre damage.


    Manifesting apressed mass in front of him, Loimos pped down on it, sending thepressed, piercing blight straight into the crowd, striking down multiple defenceless guests.


    Their bodies soon turned into plentiful rot for the undead to work with.

 Chapter 153 Release The Beast

    The yed clients melted into rot, crawling into one mass, forming into some sort of pir slightly taller than a person, then Loimos detonated it, bone spikes emerged from within, slightly poking out just before the entire thing erupted, propelling the spikes into every direction, but not a single one of them going into the undead''s direction.


    Some guards managed to weave through the st and its dangerous shrapnel, one stabbing his spear at Loimos, all of the greater forces had been taken by Abbanh, both of the elites having been convinced that nothing wrong could happen with the elder stationed here, they had been wrong, leaving only the grunts that were normally never allowed to set foot into the manor.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Mere minions thatcked in the understanding of even their simple arts, with bodies left untempered, the thrust was evaded and stopped, the skeleton pulling the guard toward him with a jerk of his hand, shing right across his face and pushing the living back into the rot and blood forming from the victims of the st.


    Guests ran around like headless chickens, the sheer terror and confusion could be tasted in the air, the inexperienced guards already struggled with the basics, but with nonbatants screaming and stumbling in their ways, they stood no chance of fighting properly or managing to gather as a group to fight together.


    Their enemy cleaved through both the clients and themselves, his sword swung with higher power, the edge unbothered by the obstacles, Loimos''s new understanding of his death force enabled greater reinforcement of both his body and his armaments, the death force permeating his being was forced outside his body, coating him in a protectiveyer, but also allowing him to utilise thatyer to attack, the guards that attempted to sh des with him saw their poor weapons erode and rust visibly.


    The sharpness impacted first, for now, it could only reliably affect inanimate objects, his control still too faulty to allow him to eat away at the living, but it was enough for now, his undead body, enhanced further allowed him to easily overpower the majority of the fighters, breaking down their guard and rendering them unable to fight with a single attack, the growing rot finishing the job.


    Of course, not all of them were weak, they all had the same defects in the sense that they barely knew how to properly utilise their arts and didn''t train much, but some of them were of species blessed with greater physical bodies, they had the possibility of dealing actual damage.


    At least, it would have been so under normal circumstances, Loimos did not hesitate to grab still living bystanders, throwing them at the guards, who despite being lesser than the rest, were no less aware of Lady Syklon, hurting clients without proper reason was forbidden and during the short instant as they saw one of them fly their way, they had to decide whether or not this was a good reason.


    Hesitation meant death.


    The growing amount of corpses allowed Loimos to rapidly form a swampy environment only for the living, dragging some of them to the ground and drowning them, restraining the movements of others.


    Loimos was able to carve his way through the crowd, many guards still remained, and they were intent on dealing with him even then, certain that numbers would eventually be enough to overwhelm him.


    Quickly enough, Loimos turned back, he had left the corpses of the guards intact, executing the necromantic art, he raised them as undeads to upy the people here as he headed for the basement.


    Coming down the stairs, he heard one of the guards that had managed to chase after him shout something.


    "Release the champion!"


    Once he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he was able to see exactly what this meant, four burly guards pulling on chains with all of their might, three of them quickly ran off once Loimos came into sight, but not from him.


    Two other guards hastily threw arge stone club, thest remaining living pointing his finger at the undead.


    "Alberg!


    It''s time to fight!" he spoke an order aloud, a crest on the chest of a blue-skinned creature lighting up as he received the order, the monster was tall, towering well over Loimos and every single guard, even if one were to count thete Guorzo, the beast was a stalwart figure, broad-shouldered and wearing an expression of uncareness, his gaze retaining a glint not when he was given an order, nor when hezily flicked his hand at the remaining guard, sttering him into chunks of flesh, the monster champion of the fights taking ce in the basement was free was covered in scars that had healed nearly perfectly, only leaving a mark as testament of their past existence.


    Alberg, or so he was referred to, returned to attention only when his gazended on Loimos, his mouth opening slightly as he grinned devilishly, showing off his teeth, the remains of past challengers still stuck in between them.


    The nearby guards scoffed at the fool that had been killed, the crest Alberg was marked with only allowed for two orders to be given, fight and rest, when resting, he couldn''t harm anything or anyone, but once the order to fight was given, he was allowed free reign, which was why the order to fight was normally only given when he and hispetitor were safely locked in the arena.


    The grinning oni snapped off the chains binding him like twigs, taking hold of his signature stone club, roaring at his new opponent, the sheer force contained in his lung pushing the undead back and almost taking him off his feet, flinging the hat on his head away.


    Thankfully, this roar wasn''t like that of the snow beast from back then, it was simply a demonstration of Alberg''s incredible physiology, nothing in the arena had bested him for years, none had even been able to leavesting injuries on his body.


    Continue reading at empire


    Today however, he was sensing a worthy foe.


    "Why isn''t Alberg rushing in like usual? Don''t tell me he is wary of this guy? Just our rotten luck, it really just had to happen when ourdy and the elites are all away!" the guard shut up as the oni nced his way, not appreciating the chatter as he was sizing up the skeleton.


    Loimos ran his palm along the side of his de, coating it with ck blood, reinforcing both his weapon and creation with the maximum death force possible.


    The only way forward was through this ogre.

 Chapter 155 Clapping

    "Hum, I don''t want to spell doubt or anything, but why have all the light in the past few areas all been unlit? They are supposed to never go out unless they had deliberately snuffed out¡­" one of the guards, with red skin and a thin tail shivered as he looked over his shoulder, holding onto antern just like the others.


    "Listen man, shut your feminine mouth for a second, there is absolutely nothing wrong, Alberg didn''t continue the fight, so it means that the fight was over, that he won! Alright? The lights must have been blown away by the flying body¡­"


    "Yeah that makes sense, no it does not! Do you hear yourself?! Those rooms span hundreds of meter at minimum! And this is the fifth one that has beenpletely dark, red boy is right, something is wrong, what if that guy was an assassin or something?" another joined the side of pessimism.


    "How does- Hold on, I did hear that they could fake their deaths by replicating the sensation of XP!"


    The group of guards all stopped and turned to one another, forming a circle, by then, even the one that had been loudly trying to convince the others not to worry was rubbing his chin, deep in thought.


    "Uh oh, do you guys think the royals could have hired a Fin-Limier to kill us?" he joined the side of wild theories with extraordinary speed, the men didn''t even bother to continue searching at this point.


    "No way, those stupid stuck-ups wouldn''t have tried anything like that with Lady Syklon around, they wouldn''t throw money away, and they certainly wouldn''t expect her to leave to go and murder their asses! They live in their own worlds, but there are limits¡­"


    "Could it be¡­ The Death Dealer? I hear she and Lady Syklon once shed, the very fact that the assassin is still around is worrying¡­"


    All fell silent, looking around and illuminating the area around themselves, everything was oddly quiet and empty.


    "Weren''t there customers in other areas? Why has everything gone so calm?" one of them finally brought up the biggest discrepancy of all, it was only natural that none of them had noticed what was wrong until now, the buzzing of shouts and voices had disappeared before they went for their searches, during the battle between Alberg and the intruder.


    They moved a few steps forward, their light shining on the feet of multiple people, their dismembered feet.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Stepping back, the guard breathed heavily, but kept their mouths shut, either their intruder had just shrugged off the lethal blow he had received and gone on to somehow extinguish every light and then mutte the customers, or, more likely, one of their monsters had gone haywire.


    Both assumptions were somehow both right and wrong at the same time.


    The guards wanted to verify what was truly happening in the darkness, discovering that not one, not two or three, but every single one of the monsters that were being kept in cages were gone, whether or not they were under the effects of a crest didn''t seem to matter.


    Meanwhile, the few guards that had remained with Alberg, trying to get him back to his cage were fully allowed to see the skeletal hand skittering along the ground, tapping on the stone floor without a care of their presence.


    There were only two of them escorting the docile oni, not nearly enough.


    "Fight" said the hand, and the lethargic ogre didn''t miss the opportunity, crushing both of his captors before they could give the opposite order.


    Speaking in the death tongue, the hand informed Alberg that the ailment he was suffering from would kill him for certain, unless he couldbat it by ughtering as many livings as possible, it was not a lie.


    By growing subtly stronger and exciting his life force throughbat, Alberg could theoretically ovee the death infesting him. Continue your saga on empire


    The difference between theory and practice wasn''t knowledge the oni was particrly interested in, he understood the brunt of what was being conveyed to him, and without hesitation, he leapt away and rushed for the upper areas, which were still bustling with life.


    With this out of the way, the sound of something pping with thick gloves pierced through the darkness, twice in a row, the sound was low, but the guards were travelling through an utterly silent expanse, currently tense to the limit, one reacted quickly, blocking an unseen projectile.


    The other, wasn''t so lucky, he attempted the same but missed, thepressed blood bullet striking into the side of his jaw,ing straight out of the other side, fragments of teeth and bits of soft flesh apanied by gum sttered over the face of the red-skinned guard, making him cry out in disgust.


    Following the first two ps, many more followed, amidst them all, some were much weaker than the rest, simply hitting the guards with the same ferocity as a stray discharge of spit, whilst others sent their brain matter to adorn the floor and walls.


    Some of the guards decided to rush into the opposite direction from where the projectiles wereing from, not a problem, they ran into the released monsters, no longer susceptible to the order imprinted upon them, as they stood amongst the rows of freshly awakened corpses.


    The released monsters had first devoured one another, the weaker ones, those that didn''t even require a crest to control, had been poisoned by Loimos''s skeletal hand, allowing him to quickly y the monsters from within, and then raise them as allies.


    The underground was filled to the brim with walking carcasses, whilst the floor above was being ravaged by Alberg, no one could stand in between him and his slumbering ally, Loimos walked slowly, his legs barely able to holding him up after receiving the full force of an oni, he had managed to preserve his arms, but the rest were in a rather poor state, the red mask on his face had been destroyed, and the pure white upper portion of his outfit was stained ck.


    He would be able to recuperate quickly, especially with the incredible amount of deaths uring nearby.


    But first, he had someone to meet.

 Chapter 156 The Graveyard

    Loimos made his way into the miniature dungeon, the ceiling above trembling from terrible impacts, rubble and dust falling down, the area shifting in length and size, it seemed like whatever was distorting the inside of the manor was slowly breaking down.


    His next action was certain to shatter itpletely, bringing both hands up against the wall, focusing his death force into his palms, injecting his chaotic death into the wall, soon reaching the unknown undead slumbering encased deep into the earth, barely even a lick of death force reached it, but it was enough, it moved.


    Easily breaking out of its natural prison, splitting the earth like a natural cmity, the manor waspletely uprooted from its foundation, and so was most of the city, the sheer size of the corpse was much beyond what Loimos had been able to sense, the mere act of digging itself out brought enormous destruction and death all over the surface.


    Loimos was spared from the destruction, as an enormous skeletal hand grabbed hold of him, safely pulling him to the surface, the fighting ceased on all sides as the massive creature appeared, the soil was copsing down, the geological disturbance splitting a small mountain in the distance.


    "Weeeell, number one amidst the king''s loyal servants, it is I, The Graveyard, where heeroes, armies and loooords join in mymunity, amunal burial for all" surprisingly enough, the mass of pristine white bones had a rather pleasant voice, almost soft and even a slight ent of unknown origins.


    "You have guessed right, I am the so-called bone cmity, the shaaaallow grave the enemies of the skeleton king are granted atst, ataaaast!"


    The Graveyard, whomst Faraday and Irmandos had somehow forgotten to mention the existence of, was nothing clear, a sheer mass of bones and nothing else, intertwined remains of countless beings, humans, beasts, monsters, giants and everything that had lived during the reign of the undead king, its head, or at least what it looked like its main head amidst the piles of them, was malformed, misshapen, as though it had been broken, melted and rebuilt countless times by an amateur.


    A white sh struck one of the thousands of arms the abomination was in possession of, leaving a mark that quickly repaired itself.


    The Graveyard waved about three hundred hands the size of Alberg, chuckling.


    Without saying anything, or paying attention to the originator of the attack, the gigantic undead pushed up the ground, erasing all life that remained inside of the city once it hit the ground.


    "All of you, joining The Graveyard as coborators is definitely the worst fate a living could get, unfortunately, it is not a choice" speaking to absolutely no one in particr, the undead creature emitted a low ''hum'' absorbing the departing souls of those that had been in, once in possession of all of them, now having the authority over their very beings, the flesh of the corpses was stripped off swiftly, their bones sucked into the endless mass.


    "Now, we are all brothers and siiiisters" it eximed, ncing down at the remaining Derelictus-Mens and the sole remaining human, Ohrn could not believed his own sight, the sheer grandeur of the undead before him was enough to suffocate him, and it had done nothing but do some basic movements and im its prize, the extent of its power had to reach further than this.


    "You, you are family, a true friend! What is thy name? I am naught but the bone cmity, The Graveyard, the creature his majesty wished to see grow into a divine beast, s, the foul Death Hunter crushed me, I am but a mere splinter of what I once was!" he brought Loimos closer to its deformed head.


    Loimos, currently shrouding himself in Miasma and using the massive amount of death his new ally had just caused to mend himself, replied immediately.


    The skeleton also made sure to swiftly update Graveyard on the current situation of the dead, it would appear that the king''s beast had been defeated well before the main events of the past war, and having been attacked by Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter before his untimely vanishment, well before many events.


    An undead defeated by this ancient hero should have had no way to not bepletely erased, leading everyone to believe that The Graveyard was no more, having been many timesrger than even now, the mesh of skeletons had managed to avoid total defeat and had gone into a stasis.


    "Shame, pity, but this age is a new one, let us finish off those livings-"


    "Mmmmh, Loimos, what is that distinct sense of approaching danger I am feeling?" it spoke nonchntly, pointing dozens of fingers at the something Loimos was unable to see until it finally stopped.


    "My Lady? You are early!" Ohrn was taken aback, but relieved still, he had predicted two weeks for her toe back, and it hadn''t even been one.


    "You truly are the strongest, and the most beautiful mydy!"


    "Silence, exin why a shitty piece of art is stomping on my city" she demanded, calmly.


    The elite cleared his throat, looking up at said art piece.


    "I do not know mydy, the ape queens suddenlyunched an attack, and out of nowhere, this thing bursted out of the ground, murdered everything in the vicinity, and as since been spouting iprehensible words at someone in its hand, one of its hands" the elder could note up with anything better than this, he hadn''t been looking for a little while, and everything immediately turned for the worse.


    "Where are the-" he suddenly realised that there were still plenty of monsters everywhere, but he was only greeted by corpses.


    "That''s already dealt with, can you seriously not handle a few monster queens? Have you been cking? All of you are fucking disappointments" she shook her head, beginning to stroll toward the humongous beast, however, the bone cmity just put someone down and began running in the opposite direction.


    Loimos was not going to lose such a great ally by throwing The Graveyard at the little menace that was the adorable little girl standing before him.


    The king''s beast value already exceeded his own just by existing, it just needed to gather bones to grow stronger at a fast pace, the graven mass was quick, already disappearing into the horizon once it began using its strength to push off the ground and jump, it would hide off somewhere and quietly gather some strength.


    But despite this, Lady Syklon still needed to be distracted for a few moments, it made no doubt that she could catch up if she really wanted to.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Mydy, there is no need to bother with him, he is clearly buying some time-" Continue your journey on empire


    "Ohrn, keep it shut will you? Can''t you see it? This fellow here, he has good potential"


    It was a bit annoying that her work had literally been squashed, but it barely mattered anymore, she had already yed the rulers of this nation and had never really cared deeply about anything here.


    Her gaze sharpened.

 Chapter 161 Spar

    The change in season had been incredibly fast, the twin suns quickly joined together once more, melding into a single mass as though nothing had ever happened, the breeze turned colder, refreshing after such long months of torturous heat.


    The leaves swiftly changed colours, creating a new canopy, a colourful expanse for many gazes to wander to, the length of the days shortened a great deal nearly instantly, this change in weather led to many more students doing some exercises outside, for others, nothing changed as the temperature never bothered them anyways.


    Today was a harsh day still for the students however, they were learning basic survival tactics, all the while not allowed to utilise their magic or special abilities, one would not always have mana at their disposal and such, so it was important to be able to do something with their own two hands.


    Right now, they needed to make and light a small campfire, it was going well, no one had hurt themselves yet.


    "They have grown significantly more capable in the few months you have taught them, I wasn''t a fan of your harshness at first, and I really am still not one, but the results speaks for themselves, mydy had never really gotten herself dirty beforeing here" Gelter spoke, standing beside Rosemary, his colleague seemingly bing one with nature as birds were perching up onto him.


    "It''s for the best, amandant needs to have skills to back up their position after all" Rosemary pped her hands, everyone had performed as was expected of them, no one had tore a hole through their hands or immted themselves, that was better than usual.


    With a flick of her hand, she erected a small tform of solid stone, dark in colour and perfectly t surfaces, both of her sses gathered in front of her.


    "That''s right, you have done a good job, and as such, we will be doing some light sparring, I know that you all prefer using your abilities like this, a bunch of brutes you are" she joked, walking over to the bodyguards.


    "But you will all be facing either of those two gentlemen instead of your peers, I''ll remind you all that this is still academy ground, the building is like, twenty meters, you can all see it, so don''t just use attacks of a big scale, part of the assignment is to show some restrain and not just splurges your mana everywhere"


    The birds perched on Osworth flew away, Gelter shaking his head, the knight had only agreed to show off his battle art in the first ce, but his flirtatious peer had gotten the both of them into this, he always had a hard time understanding what this masked fool was thinking in that head of his.


    He barely conversed with his own colleague and lord, but would go into passionate conversations with the volcanic witch, truly, only mystery hid behind that mask.


    "You may choose who you want to face inbat, Gelter, a knight, or Osworth, whose proficiency you surely all have little clue about, except for Antieeld, as theirdy, you will be having the honour of sparring with me" Rosemary smiled at the unfortunate girl.


    Griar stepped forward first, finding it less stressful to go first, also eager to challenge a true knight, he had only ever had spars with one other knight, which was his very own father, it went without saying that those little training sessions weren''t very serious, his progenitor would go easy on his only son every single time.


    Gelter''s sword was a rather long one, definitely more so than the typical de of this sword, his armour was with few gaps, each of them still protected by chainmail and gambeson, he wielded this sword in one hand, keeping hold of his scabbard in the other.


    ''Oh, he is left-handed?'' the young man immediately noticed it, most swordsmen of a high-calibre would learn to use weapons with both of their hands, being assigned as a bodyguard of one of the twelve talent holders, it would be idiotic to consider the alternative.


    Still, it was only natural for one to begin a fight using their most habile limb, this was a bit problematic, the blond boy wasn''t certain how to properly approach this.


    He utilised his magic, circting mana throughout his body and sabre, transmuting it into his umon element, sword, just sword.


    Although allowing for the creation of great armament of pure magic, and the conjuration of great projectiles even with his basic mastery as a mage, he only used the potent reinforcement it allowed him to bestow upon his weapon.


    Wishing to use this opportunity to learn as much as he could about the de, he used the most power he could unleash right off the bat, he could not allow himself to get knocked on his ass within the first few seconds.


    Gelter wasn''t much of a mage at all, his talent was too poor to even bother learning energy reinforcement, but it wasn''t necessary, thrusting his de straight into the ground, a purplish energy flickered into existence for brief instant.


    The effect of the knight''s action was to sweep the young noble off his feet and pull him forward.


    Griar was taken aback but did not panic, lowering his body to avoid getting hit in the face by the sheath, swinging his sword at one of the few gaps, right at the bodyguard''s armpit, despite having his speed and power enhanced, the student''s attempt was not slick in the least, his attack dodged with ease.


    The scabbard thrown directly at his stomach, freeing the knight''s hand to then switch his hold onto his weapon to half-swording, the pommel smashing into the youthful face, knocking him out instantly.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "My bad, you alright kid?" he got no response.


    Rosemary pointed her finger at the unfortunate Griar, shrouding him in a soft me that healed in minor injuries, and woke him up.


    "Who wants to go next?" she casually asked as Gelter helped the dizzy young man off the tform.


    No one wanted to get beaten down next.

 Chapter 165 Not Lonely Old Man

    A faint sigh escaped an old man''s lips as he slipped into bed, despite his more than advanced age, Agilulf Wanneck was not even close to appearing like a crumbling geezer, his white hair were resplendent, slightly wavy, his beard perfectly trimmed at all times, though he did not sport any moustache, this was his signature look.


    The refined appearance he was known for, the merchant king that did not hesitate to meet within the heart of others territories, and did not shy away from interacting with various other species, even if some of them were hard tomunicate with, any business partner was his best friend.


    His generousness with those that treated him as an ally would most be seen in his interactions in Tochi, where he had not only stricken a deviously good deal with the royalty, the famed Lady Syklon herself, and even multiple Derelictus-Mens queens, indeed, he was to me for gifting scrumptious staves as well as teaching them the basics of magic, which the monsters had greatly improved upon on their own.


    Not everybody liked him for his money schemes, but they had to admit that his deals were the best, and by far, some called him Roitelet as a mockery, they were stilling to him for trades however, that told enough.


    His still toned body was eced by a pretty demon woman with light green skin, one of his many mistresses, that was another advantage of being on good terms with everyone, he had many partners, though, he had yet to take a queen and have sessors.


    For someone such as him, it wasn''t an urgency however, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer, still looking intently at some official papers, even in bed, his job was not done for the day.


    "You seem a bit odd today, is everything alright?" his demonic mistress resting her head on his chest, putting down the piece of paper, he stroked her hair, a bit in thought.


    "Nothing of importance, the unwanted presences are progressing at a steady rate, our preparations for Audit''s vision are progressing well too, it''s just those mine copses, the loss in profit is miniscule, negligible, but it does not feel right to allow someone to do as they wish" truthfully, even the tiniest amount of loss was rough in his heart, but his mind knew better than that, he could not police each of his businesses perfectly at all times, there was always a chance of things going wrong.


    And it was a good asion to use the manpower that usually worked there, putting them to work elsewhere, to revitalise regions that had grown poorer in thest years, with some luck, new deposits of resources would be discovered.


    That thought eased his worries a great deal, also the fact that he had a beauty next to him, but the prospect of money always wins the game.


    Even with multiple mistresses, it wasn''t even a contest.


    After a bit more reading and quality time, the king fell asleep, the soft breathing of his bedpanion washing over his neck, until he awoke, only a few hours had passed, it was the middle of the night.


    He was hearing footsteps somewhere close-by, as the ruler of this pce, Agilulf Wanneck''s bedroom was beyond oversized, resting in the center of the castle, he had ess to pretty much every room through both simple doors and secret passages.


    Listening intently, he was able to pinpoint the location of this person, well, where they were going, with low hum escaping his lips, he slipped away from the tender hold of his mistress, put his nightgown back on, grabbing a candle stick, lighting the three candle on it without lingering on, he snuck into one of his secret passages.


    Travelling without a sound, the owner of the footsteps went silent inside a pantry,rge and brimming with enough food to feed the upants for an entire year, if not more.


    Without hesitation, the king stepped out in the darkened room, his blue eyes shining from the mes, his visage unmoving and perfectly neutral, even when he spun around, using the candlestick to block a dagger swinging down on him.


    Twisting his impromptu weapon, forcing the intruder to drop his weapon right into the king''s hand, stabbing the dark figure right in the stomach, forcing it at an odd, upward angle, the tip of the de sticking into that definitely wasn''t good.


    The assassin grunted like a wild beast, soon falling as though all of his bones had been robbed from him.


    "Guards!" he yelled, ever so casually, sounding more like he was calling for someone to clean some poop off the floor.


    Multiple guards appeared, surprised at the sight of an intruder, especially so deep into the castle.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "Keep it somewhere cold, we''ll go over this mess in the morning, I have a bed to help warm up" Agilulf Wanneck yawned, going away without a speck of any emotion from killing a man.


    Without having to be told directly, the guards ryed word to the rest of their fellows, searching everywhere for any additional intruders, but only the one that the king had noticed had somehow found a way inside, a few other intruders were found near the edge of the pce,pletely inert.


    Once morning came, the corpses of the night lurkers were put out in the middle of the throne room, overlooked by the king, sitting in his royal seat, his two guards by his side, apanied by their trainees, the unwanteds.


    It would be an understatement to say that the three young summons were a bit ufortable at the sight of corpses, but they had to maintain face at the moment.


    The bodies were stripped of their dark clothes, revealing magic circles and sigils inscribed deep into their flesh, their backs riddled with small holes, but what made the unwanted gag was the faces of those assassins.


    For they had none left, only a hole left by a dreadful fire that seemed to have been raging until very recently, the head and skull leftpletely hollow.


    "Looks like a coboration between The Defiler''s and Puppeteers, they must have had help from a skilled mage to inscribe those things on their bodies without killing them¡­" Pierre-Orn¨¦e noted.


    "The circles and sigils seem to be solely meant to increase their stealth and reduce their presence" one of the royal mages remarked.


    "Well, that looks like a deration of war, feeling like killing some people, kids?" he turned to his threetest recruits.


    They vigorously said no with their heads.


    "They certainly are" responded Bough in their stead.


    "Great then, go on the hunt"

 Chapter 166 In The Deep

    Stone cracked, falling apart as a fist came crashing down against its surface, the culprit behind this act of destruction cursing loudly, his sounding as though he had been living in a smoke factory for birth.


    "What the hell is the matter with you again?" another nearby asked, many people, their identity nearly impossible to decipher, garbed in tattered robes and cloaks fashioned from materials recuperated from the trash of others, part bup, part whatever.


    Their hands were all grossly misshapen, covered in burns, bones protruding out from flesh that had once melted, solidifying into the abominations they still dared to call limbs, the one that just spoke up limped his way to his angry associate.


    Their heads and faces were no better off than their deformed hands, all of them had both of their eyes carved out by dark orange mes, ever burning inside of their sockets, recing their sights.


    "The matter with me?! You know very well what the problem is! Why are we stuck in this shit hole, why are we always hiding? We are the scions of the new age, we were chosen by The Defiler, yet, we allow the holy to spread, they erect their churches and cathedrals with impunity, we are destroyers, we must spread the fire no matter what!" his teeth were stained ck, the skin on his face king off.


    The inferno infecting his eyes grew darker for an instant, prompting him to grab his head, ignoble pain assaulting him, he did not stop however.


    "Why is it that we have to associate ourselves with those doll botherers and stupid bitches?! Answer me, why are we taking orders from that forsaken skeleton?!" clenching his molten hands, he only received a wave of the head as an answer at first.


    "You little idiot, there are only a handful of us, if we want to aplish anything meaningful, we have to partner up, otherwise we''ll be snuffed and serve as the kindling of our disgusting enemies" despite sounding more sane than hispatriot, the way this one smiled was a rather clear indicator that he was not even remotely close to sanity.


    Though, the madness guing each and every one of them was far apart from the natural lunacy that could creep up upon everyone, for it was most certainly the dark work of the fire that had nested inside of them.


    "Urgh, we still lost perfectly good husks just for a meaningless stunt, I don''t understand what that bag of bones thinks he is aplishing by riling up the king as well, if one of his two knights shows up here, we''ll all get crushed"


    "The undead seems to know more than he has any rights to, but it does not matter what his own ns are, we are along for the ride because we can use this opportunity to finally crawl out of obscurity, he knows it, we know it, everyone involved knows that we are each in for our own benefits, that''s why he doesn''t share his own goal with us" the moreposed madman exined his reasoning, the mes brushing up against his brain as he thought.


    "We, the Puppeteers, Aliz¨¦, we are all working with this corpse for our own benefits, I am certain, so shut the hell and control yourself until then, I am certain he is listening in on us at this very moment, we will wait until timees, right?" he pointed his finger at the face of the rowdy fellow.


    "Fine, fine! I can''t believe we have to employ such tactics, The Defiler was-"


    "We are not The Defiler, we are mere ember"


    __________________


    "Dearest, it seems like our fiery allies are punching the walls again" someone, their voice perfectly androgynous, noted as they did a light twirl, such gracepletely unwarranted in the dank depths they were currently in, surrounded by nothing but stone, some minerals scattered here and there.


    Garbed in a huge piece of dark fabric, covering their entire body, giving no room from them to move their arms as they wished, a gorgeous, thin red rope tightly wrapped around their necks, ensuring that their peculiar attire did not move out of position.


    Without any sound of a footstep, the one that just spoke danced their way back to the rest of the people grouped up here, all dressed in the exact same way, down to the very particr way the rope was tied, utterly impossible to tell any of them apart.


    "Dearest, the beautiful lord has something to say" another said, in the exact same voice as the first one.


    "What wisdom is our beautiful lord imparting upon us, dearest?"


    "Dearest, do ry our handsome lord''s words"


    The congregation of dark figures spontaneously moved to positions around a muchrger figure than themselves, beginning a slow, perfectly learned group dance, their dark cloth fluttering around, giving the impression that they were all dark roses blooming.


    A single one remained immobile, leaning their head near the pale, porcin face of the handsome lord, absolute silence filled the room as the dancing continued.


    The lord of the Ironic Puppeteers, was a puppet, utterly inert and unmoving, many timesrger than a regr man, dressed in incredibly thick clothing,yers onyers of the same dark fabric it''s servants wore, some part of its attire floating up in the air seemingly by themselves, only the face of the lord was visible,cking in much details.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The porcin was pristine however, despite the near constant fall of dust from the ceiling, the appearance of the lord continuously tended to by its eager followers.


    "The lord is speaking"


    "The lord is saying for us to only prepare ourselves for theing descent"


    "The lord is saying that the lostmbs are not a matter to concern over"


    "The lord has spoken"


    This signalled the end of the performance, the puppeteers twirled closer to their lord, many of them resuming the tending, whilst the rest went into different tunnels, off to prepare for the descent their lord warned them about.


    Just as they wished to do this, the cave rumbled in a particr way, sign that they were called by the master of this operation.

 Chapter 167 Little Flirt

    "And you told me you weren''t good at magic, I never met someone so good at spirit creation and golemcraft" Rosemary but up her hand against Osworth''s shoulder, unlike usual, she had ditch her red robe, currently dressed in brown pants and a white shirt with no sleeves, her arms weren''t very bulky but definitely well trained, not everyone would get bigger with training after all.


    Turning around, she pped her hand and showed off the creation she and Osworth had just built to her ss, in thest month, she had taught both of her sses at the same moment every single time, they needed to get more familiar with one another to form more cohesive groups.


    "You will be trying out just spirit creation for today, but look at this magnificent creation, do you not want to be able to conjure such a valuable ally at all times?


    Bybining a spirit you created with a golem, the result is even more powerful than the sum of both their strength added to one another, it has greater intelligence by default as well, to achieve such a result with either a spirit or golem, lots of works and training is needed, but if you can manage to fuse the two, even if the most basic and weak versions possible, you will have a great source of strength at hand" she exined, clearly very enthusiastic about this lesson.


    Unlike spirit calling, bound spirits, familiars and shades, the strength of created spirits and golems was always tightly linked to the mage''s own, they were valuable skills to learn, and that even if left to collect dust for a while, would always grow alongside the user themselves.


    Unfortunately, the greater echelon of magic was very obsessed with the most basic utilisation of mana, spells conjured by nothing but the sorcerer''s own mana control, not that basic magic was bad, it was simply a waste to inculcate young mages that it was all that was worth their time.


    Rosemary had been taught the same at first, but being so overwhelmingly talented, she had plenty of time to delve into the other documented ways of casting magic.


    "Do not try to inscribe a spell or use an element for it at first" she instructed them, stepping to the side to observe them.


    Obviously, some had already read through some of the books their teacher had given them and attempted it before, but still, none were close to seeding yet.


    "Where is Gelter today? I didn''t expect him not to watch over Antieeld even if the world turned upside down"


    "He has been given a little task, leaving the two of us to ourselves, it would appear, how many of them do you believe will be able of learning spirit creation?" he asked, his tone unchanging throughout the course of his sentence.


    "Well, it is hard to be certain, most of them are talented enough to learn it eventually, but the biggest hurdle to ovee concerning both spirit creation and golemcraft is not to create one, but to learn to maintain it, after all, at the beginning, their creations will require their attention not to fall apart, but you would know about this, you didn''t tell me you were so skilled" she put her hands on her hips, giving him a look indicating that she wanted him to borate.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "You give me too much credit, it just happens that I am good in those specific areas, after all, as you must have noticed, my mana has a special trait, but I am, let us say, blunt when ites to affinities, I have none, I struggle to invoke even the basic elements" he admitted, looking over the students, all of them still struggling to even form their spirits.


    "I am starting to believe that you just underestimate yourself, hearing you talk, it sounds like you were immediately capable of grasping the concept of those two nearly immediately, you should juste by at my ce"


    "Well, I do not think I can reasonably deny that offer, but I must consult with Antieeld first"


    The two of them continued on exchanging pleasantries for the next thirty minutes, only stopping for the asional giving of advices to the youngsters, she had already hammered the good ways to circte mana into them, so repeatedly trying to create a spirit wasn''t too straining on them, though, those with the most mana definitely had an easier time.


    Only after half an hour did someone finally manage to shape a spirit.


    "Gelter might have broken his calm demeanour" remarked the masked bodyguard, indeed, the red-haired futuremandant had been the first to manifest a spirit, and she was even managing to keep it together for quite a while.


    Being made from simple mana, it took on its natural blue colour, somewhat translucent and shaped like a regr knight,ing even with a shield and spear, standing at attention.


    The young woman did her best to appear perfectlyposed, like it was only natural, but the corners of her mouth curled up anyways, her eyes positively shining at the sight of her own creation, beads of sweat trickling down her face.


    "Good job Antieeld, I didn''t actually expect such an early sess on the first lesson, don''t bother on maintaining it for now, focus on learning to create and dispel your spirit as you wish" she rubbed her student''s shoulder, noticing that she was quite tense.


    "Antieeld was looking forward to this lesson, as amandant, being able of increasing the numbers on her side as she wishes is a big deal, ording to her, she spends her time reading on the various ways to do this" Osworth whispered the Rosemary when she came back next to him.


    "Unfortunately, I am not an exceptional instructor" he made a light gesture toward her, which she assumed was a silent way of implying that she was exceptional.


    "Aherm, it''s mostly them, they are the ones who do the majority of the work after all, I just give them the tools they need¡­"


    Without anyone paying attention to him, the headmaster who had walked up to a nearby window was left with mouth gaping for a little while now.


    ''This smooth motherfucker, he really is doing it!''

 Chapter 168 Nothingness

    The headmaster overlooked the two figures of Rosemary and Osworth leaving the grounds of the academy, headed straight for the witch''s dwelling, the elder felt like pulling out his hair, he had kept on observing the masked man, continuously, without stopping, but he could not find out anything wrong with his behaviour, yet, his guts did not weaken down, they told him to be wary of him.


    He trusted his well-honed instincts, they had been mercilessly forged throughout countless years, but for a mage of his calibre, logic and proofs were of the utmost importance, despite what he could say to himself, he had not managed to bring himself to eliminate Osworth based on nothing but gut feeling, he desperately wanted to find something to confirm his suspicions, or something topletely bury them, either way was fine.


    However, Osworth continued on just being this odd character, growing intensely talkative and warm when around the volcano witch, it was like something just clicked in this guy''s mind whenever he approached her.


    Time passed by in a swift manner as the headmaster banged his head against the wall, incapable of acting, until night had fallen and he saw Osworthing back, it appeared like Rosemary had preferred to stay at her ce out of the academy for the night, whilst the target of suspicion came back.


    Nothing illogical in all of this, he was the bodyguard of Antieeld, of course he wouldn''t spend so long away for his master, the thought that something could have happened to the witch didn''t even cross his mind, he was well aware that she could not be defeated so easily, and that she had rigged herself with a spell upon death, that was one of the few things she had been willing to share with his whitered self.


    "Well, fuck all of this, I''m too old to be stressing over something like this, I''ll just walk up to him, and ask him questions myself, I am the damned headmaster of this academy, I can inspect people on my grounds" he pped both sides of his face, pretty much flying out of his office, wanting to catch Osworth as quickly as possible.


    ''I should have just done this in the very beginning-'' he suddenly halted all movements, all thoughts, his previous worries disappearing as his face hardened.


    Something was off here, and it had nothing to do with the masked fellow, who was walking toward his assigned room with his typical fast and silent steps.


    Within the academy, the headmaster could sense everything, his senses could reach even the furthest point, not weakening in the least, like he was just looking at his own hand, he had sensed nothing, which was odd.


    He could not possibly sense nothing here, but where? Where had that nothinge from? It was as though it was everywhere and nowhere all at once, a sign that the thing hiding from him was beyond skilled in the craft of stealth.


    The old man soon noticed that the nothing went away, having most certainly picked up that he had not been none the wiser to its existence, he momentarily forgot about Osworth, much more pressed by a tangible proof of something invading his academy than his unfounded suspicions on a man.


    But he was not allowed to forget his suspicions for long, because the bodyguard diverted from his initial path, sooning into direct view of the headmaster.


    "Headmaster, you are not in your office, you must have noticed it too then?" his oddly pleasant voice was quite grating to the elder''s ears but he didn''t show it.


    "You sensed it as well? Rather impressive but most important, something or someone definitely just infiltrated the academy, wouldn''t you say?" acting casual, he looked intently at the man before him who was as frustratingly unreadable as usual.


    "With talent holders and nobles residing within the academy, ites to no surprise that some could be targeted, however, no measly assassins could simply waltz in and escape you, yes?"


    "That is only natural, I hadn''t even believed that any coulde in until today, my surveince only gets stronger with the passing of time¡­"


    "How about the Fin-Limiers? I have heard that no assassins were finer than them, simultaneously awfully famous for assassins, yet uncatchable and without failures, perhaps a sufficient enough bounty has been promised for them to take the risk of invading the grounds of Toordefer"


    "We shall be more careful than ever, the outside excursion organised by Mary is growing closer as well"


    Osworth spoke his mind, to which the headmaster could only agree.


    "Mmh? Excuse me, Sir Osworth, what did you just say? Just now" despite the tense situation, he had not missed such an outrageous thing, surely, stress had made his ears y tricks on him, there was simply no way Osworth had just uttered something like this.


    "The excursion is soon to happen" he said, ever so casually.


    "No, I mean, what did you just call Rosemary?" the old man borated without pause.


    "Mary, she said that I should call her in such a fashion, after our time together earlier"


    The headmaster keeled over, grabbing his chest.


    "Argh, that is- That''s good to hear¡­ Young people growing so close in such a short amount of time, isn''t life beautiful sometimes? Aah¡­"


    How long had he worked with her? He had pretty much known her ever since she was a youngster, a beginner! And all he earned was her ire, not that he enjoyed her attitude anyways, but something he didn''t know was there was just mercilessly stung with the force of a thousand needles.


    "Aherm, Osworth, you are just called Osworth right?"


    "Indeed"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Osworth, take care of her, alright? I know she''s strong but still" he picked himself up again, regaining hisposure.


    "Do not worry in the least, I already took care of her, she fell asleep with a smile on her face" Osworth ced his hand against his chest, leaning forward as he spoke in a lower tone, slightly nodding his head.


    The headmaster felt his heart stop beating for a good second, not even paying attention as the masked man bid him good night and walked off.

 Chapter 169 Vertex

    As the months passed, as the day of the field trip grew closer, the intensity and duration of Rosemary''s sses increased exponentially, studying the various applications of magic in as much details as was sensible, some like Marl, the talented cleric, focused more on the applications of the holy obviously, which Rosemary was also knowledgeable enough to teach him in.


    Today however, it was about three particr techniques shared amongst all energies, the techniques in question could actually be considered as one split into three steps, although most wouldn''t go past the first, and even more would not be touching upon the third.


    "The first step is called ''Vertex'', it refers to the utilisation of mana at the maximum possible power you can manage, as well as pushing the limit, the additional mana you can add, it is nothing but pure energy used in its most bare form, it can only be considered as truly learned when you can maintain it, due to its nature, it can hardly be used as projectile, and is mostly reserved for physical reinforcement, be careful however, it can cause a toll if you use it for too long without proper training" she exined, the concept was well-known, so it was nothing new to the students but she still made certain to remind them the dangers.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Although it sounded simple on paper, managing to maintain both one''s output and limit to the constant peak possible required a certain finesse, which could only be achieved with ample training and experience, after all, such a technique was most useful inbat, so even if technically mastered by simply training, once in an actual situation, it wouldn''t hold up for even a second.


    "You don''t need to actually learn vertex, this exercise is only meant to improve your control over the output of your spells, though, if you do manage to learn it, I''ll add points to the next few exams" she shined a smile at them, making them all grumble, that was such an obvious to bait to force them to try even harder than usual, but despite this, they all gobbled it up because she had promised that the tests that woulde after the field trip would be much more difficult, and Rosemary never lied, to them at least.


    Milo steeled his focus, knowing that power and limit were his bread and butter, he had to spend a lot of time learning to control his outrageously potent mana, he had more experience than his ssmates in that regard, he just add to find the right bnce.


    Controlling and keeping his mana at its maximum, coursing through his body was achieved rather easily, so the rest of this lesson was spent to truly discover the utmost height of his limit, meaning the additional mana he could add on top of this, likeyers, each would need to be at maximum power as well, and this is when he began to realise that it would be a difficult affair.


    As it turns out, he could add a hefty amount of additional mana to his reinforcement, meaning that aplishing vertex would be more difficult, one with a subpar output and limit but good enough maniption would be able to do vertex more easily.


    That was a good thing however, the greater those two aspects were, the more impressive the results would be, Milo''s vertex was set to be exceptionally potent.


    Everyone was progressing at their own pace, some attempting it immediately, others like Milo testing the grounds beforehand, others trying to mimic a vertex, simply doing the opposite and using the minimum power and only a singleyer of additional mana to try and get a good idea of what the bnce should be like.


    Helena belonged to the third group, her impressive maniption allowing her to easily maintain it together with much more ease, then slowly working her way up, there were no methods that were better than the other, only methods best suited to individuals.


    "The two lovebirds are very talented despite not having noble upbringings, especially that Helena girl, although Milo''s element is rather peculiar"


    "Indeed, they are quite good, but each of my students have their strong points, Griar is very lucky to have the sword element, he is already surprisingly good at infusing his sword, perhaps we''ll get to see the rise of someone capable of giving Pierre-Orn¨¦e a run for his money, in a few dozen years" Rosemary rubbed her chin, a proud smile on her face, even with how good and famous she was, not every students she had taught had be good, certain people were simply not meant to be mages, like Marl and some of the other talent holders, but they had predetermined paths they could always fall back on.


    "But if I may ask, do you have any idea what Milo''s element is all about? I have never seen or heard anything like it before?"


    "My apologies Mary, I do not, I can only feel the fact that something about it is odd"


    "If some of them manage to properly learn vertex by then, would you consider teaching them about apex and transcend?" he then asked, seemingly quite interested.


    "I wouldn''t mind, but beyond vertex, it gets a bit too dangerous" shaking her head, she remembered her very first attempts at both of those, it was a good thing she knew how to heal.


    "I can''t police what they do in their free time anyways, the path of magic is filled with dangers, those who attempt to circte their mana without proper guidance or knowledge tend to die or cripple themselves in some way, apex and transcend are even more dangerous, and there is no real way of doing it without risking injuries, even vertex can be a bit dangerous"


    Silence befell the entire area, only groans and low cursing words sometimesing from the students filled the air, Osworth and Rosemary just observed in silence, their efforts as unfruitful as could be expected on their first attempts.


    A few more lessons passed by without anyone managing to do it, though, a few were getting very close, standing just next to the edge, one more step and they would manage to aplish their first vertex.


    "Would you look at this Mary, seems like you might have to give out free points"

 Chapter 171 Atop The Roof

    Staring at the malformed shape lunging at him, the headmaster erected a wall of earth, destroying his office without hesitation as he forced his way through the ceiling and onto the roof, only to find that the mad dog of the Fin-Limiers was already there.


    Hands on her waist, impracticallyrge cloak dragged by the strong winds that had decided at an opportune moment to show up.


    ''Amongst those that stand a step higher than everyone else, only a few can be crowned with such lofty titles nowadays¡­'' the headmaster''s heart was beating too fast, he controlled his breathing to calm his nerves.


    "If I may ask, who has put a hit on my head? Surely, I can offer up more than them" he attempted to be diplomatic, it worked more often than was believed, even with lunatics.


    "Heh, the privacy of my clients is important, but let me tell you, you must have fucked up big time, it was a money pool, they spared money for a while to get you six feet under, don''t know about you, but I think it''s pretty telling" she shed her teeth at him, grabbing hold of her cloak, swinging a portion of it in front of her, revealing two small crossbows in both her hands.


    Conjuring up strong winds, the headmaster took control of the direction the many bolts shot at him, redirecting them right back at her, the creepy smile she wore didn''t falter dodging them in the most minimalistic way possible.


    ''The crossbows disappeared¡­'' just like everyone else, the senior mage was not aware of the true methods of The Death Dealer, acting with caution, he continuously backed away from her, conjuring up invisible winds to keep her at bay.


    She easily broke free of his first crushing wind currents, demonstrating brute force unlike what should be expected of an assassin, forcing him to immediately put his all into spells only meant to prevent her from getting close, even then, she was not swayed easily.


    With a burst of power, he began to fly into the air, trying to take the fight away from the academy, there were still plenty of students and teachers after all, he had to keep the bloodthirsty maniac away from them.


    Pushing off the ground, the assassin jumped up into the air, twisting the headmaster''s expression into a deep scowl as he suppressed the temptation of expressing his thoughts on the situation aloud, she was right in front of him, and judging by the pose she was taking, she seemed confident in the idea of pushing against the very air.


    Before she could render him into a bloody mess, his body once again turned dark, the ck mass shooting away, back onto the roof of the academy, revealing the headmaster on one knee, hastily performing hand signs and incantations.


    "Come, dragon!" he finished his singr spell, manifesting into existence the phantomatic form of a four-limbed draconoid, turning dark once more, he retreated further away as the assassin plummeted down,nding without a sound or a speck of additional destruction.


    "The hell you''re saying dragon for? Does that thing even qualify as a wyvern?" retrieving a pale sword from behind the cover of her cloak, she rushed forward, taking the shape of a twisting mass of writhing darkness, jumping over the ming breath of the created spirit, stabbing it straight through the head.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Dispelling its translucent body, revealing the stern headmaster a hefty distance away, having created a small altar of some sort, and drawn a circle on the ground, which was sucking in a great deal of his deep mana pool, calling forth a spirit rather than creating one.


    A ripple disturbed the very air, growing more and more frantic with every ripple, until a humanoid figure forced its way out, revealing a hardly unique-looking knight, though, even if very much unremarkable physically, the greyish ghostly figure of the knight had remarkable poise.


    A spirit of stone, the old man stepped back, casting a de of water without waiting, the knight sprinting right for The Death Dealer, knowing no fear for what did not possess the means of ending its existence.


    Throwing a punch, the assassin dodged the side, noting the amateurish stance as she deflected the old man''s spell with a flick of her wrist, a dagger having appeared in her hand at an unknown point.


    She moved to swiftly dispose of the spirit, dark mass rushing up to her, morphing into the headmaster as he manifested twin swords of condensed earth, swinging at her without wait.


    "Well, I have to apologise, I wasn''t familiar with your style!" sheughed, pleasantly surprised as the summoner and spirit both relentlessly attacked her at close range.


    The conjured swords broke apart as per the mage''s own will, turning into countless shards of sharp rock, shooting out at close range, somehow blocked still, the headmaster didn''t let this failure weight down on him, repeatedly conjuring weapons of various elements, making them explode when still in his hands, throwing them up in the air, allowing them to remain motionless, looming over and threatening toe flying at the Fin-Limier at any moment, casting spells directly from behind her, but every damn time.


    Without fail, the wicked woman would somehow dodge or block the spell, doing so with so much ease that it was frustrating.


    Gritting his teeth, the headmaster steeled his resolve and infused his body to the limit, unleashing the level of power just above vertex, apex.


    Literally running into the dagger pointed at him, grabbing the wrist of the despicable assassin, pushing his other palm right up against her chest, even then, she just smiled at him.


    "Disappointed much? I am rather t-" he unleashed zing inferno, burning so hot for a split instant that it shined white, injuring his own hand by utilising the mana going through apex as a projectile, it exceeded the strength of his usual mana by a great deal, the know of his mana could not protect him from damage entirely.


    The spirit''s head fell down.


    "-But hey, I think I am still pretty hot, ah, get it?"


    "What the hell are you made of?!"


    "I was just born different, built with the best parts avable"


    He saw the soles of boots appearing in view, covering the entirety of his sight, there was no dodging this.

 Chapter 172 Obvious

    Or was there? The headmaster did not feel the boot crushing his head into paste, it would appear that The Death Dealer had not helped his brain experience fresh air, instead, with his eyes closed, he felt a sudden pull, a vertigo, and a body crashing into him.


    "You seem do have run into a bit of pickle headmaster, a snafu of some kind" the old man was pulled up to his feet, the assassin maintaining her pose with her leg outstretched, as though she had not realised that the old head''s skull had not been converted into sand.


    But no, she stared right at the now two of them with a look of curiosity, just keeping herself into this position for no viable reasons.


    "You disrupted your mana flow, but I would prefer some assistance to deal with this feisty woman" Osworth ced his hand onto the elder''s shoulder, his tone still as palpably tranquil as usual, even when literally showed by the finest Fin-Limier''s refined killing intent, either he was unshakable, or he was just unable to notice.


    He handed a small vial to the headmaster, stepping forward and raising his hands, daring to challenge her to a fight in close quarters.


    "Are you insane?! She''s going to tear you apart!" the old man protested, he was well aware of where he stood in the chain of power, and knew very well that he at a spot well above even those said strong, but so was he knowledgeable that he was way down beneath the extraordinary, some sort of middle ground that he had since long gave up on reaching, those fated to step up did so early.


    The Volcano Witch, Storm Of de, The Death Dealer and The Two Copper Knights, all four had been born muchter than himself, but reached their level well before he had aplished his own, what took him decades only took them less than a single one.


    He highly doubted that Osworth was somehow capable of even holding her back at all, she might just be able to literally walk through him.


    "Do not worry for even a second, I can not die"


    The assassin stared at the masked bodyguard with an eyebrow raised, one hand on her face, a finger tapping repeatedly against her cheek.


    "Absolute idiot!" the old man cursed as his brazenness and illogical confidence, gulping down the small vial, trying to get his mana circting properly again, to what end, he did not know, even a harmful manoeuver using apex at point nk, literally casting the spell directly into her chest had not even made her pause mid-sentence.


    This was no normal strength, even species with impressive magical defences would have severely reeled from such a blow, and The Death Dealer certainly looked like a human, not even imposing, and she just ate it, not even her clothes were damaged by the severe inferno.


    He could not guess what could be the true reason behind such an outstanding body, he did not have enough information, all he could tell about her was that she was a woman, was probably a freak of nature, and was kind of cute, though thatst point was not relevant.


    The old man just couldn''t help but notice that detail.


    ''We can not win, but surely, we can still retreat, somehow¡­'' he raised his hand to cast a spell, blinking a couple of times as he saw double, everything seemed wobbly, his mana ceased its cirction against his will.


    ''Did she poison me- Poison?'' he wanted to gasp audibly, but instead, his legs gave in, falling to his knees, catatonic, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.


    "Welp, let me tell you, that disguise of yours is actually pretty convincing, I didn''t recognise you for a second there, I probably wouldn''t have at all had I not known in advance honestly" the assassin cracked her neck, walking up to Osworth and pping him on the back.


    "How''s it going Loimos? Making old bones? I wasn''t expecting you to hire my services again, I don''t ept jobs without kills usually, just made an exception, because ofst time, haven''t had much luck on my missions since then" she tapped his chest with her index, awfully talkative with a decaying corpse.


    "I did not believe that any other would be able doing the job as well as you, the headmaster had tricks that would have dealt with regr assassins easily, also, we are familiar with one another" despite being in presence of someone aware of his rotting status, his voice as Osworth remained the same.


    Maintaining such a potent disguise, which was needed considering the sort of people he was constantly around, had necessitated him to take up some restraining conditions, one of them being to maintain the Osworth character he had invented.


    Though, that wasn''t even close to being the most constraining.


    Walking up to the inert, but still breathing headmaster, Loimos snapped his fingers, prompting the man to stand up.


    "You will not make any further actions against I, you shall act as per usual and never go against me or my allies, await your next orders and end your life if you are discovered to be under control, keep yourself in your office as much as you did before, and repair the damages done, if anyone asks you about what happened, say that a problem happened with the academy''s array, keep an eye on the king''s action" the skeleton recited a series of orders before sending the headmaster away.


    "That''s some impressive stuff you got there" Maliah nodded her head.


    "It was a coboration of many minds, may I ask for a favour?" the undead moved right up to her.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Yeah sure, you''re the closest thing I have to a friend"


    "I would appreciate if you could make sure that no bounty is ced on Aliz¨¦, and that if one is, that no one takes up the mission, I have an ally, to convince whoever takes care of such matters, here is a sample of an earlier version of the serum the headmaster just ingested, they should be thrilled"

 Chapter 173 Salt Mine

    "That is a lot of salt, how is there still so much in there? They''ve been exploiting these mines for years already" Griar looked up at the high ceiling, talking to distract himself from the fear that everything woulde crashing down on him and crush him into liquid.


    None of his threepatriots shared in his fear however, their teacher had taken multiple measures to ensure that whoever, or whatever was responsible for the copses could just drop the ceiling on her student''s heads.


    "We are deep now, there is still much ressources to be collected higher up, so they probably haven''t yet considered harvesting the salt that is in more dangerous ideas" Antieeld responded, sending a bright orb of mana into a tight passage, finding only a dead end.


    "Anything on your end?" she directed a question at Milo and Helena, the first lifting small pebbles, the second trying to find remnants of mana signatures.


    "No residues to be found" she spoke first, her mana perception being the highest of the group, the job of checking for such things naturally fell on her, but mana from people and such dispersed rather quickly, especially in an environment rich of wild mana such as this one, there was nothing suspicious for her to find.


    "Oh, that''s¡­ This is, hum, something" Milo was thrilled finding something of odd nature, but was honestly unable to identify what he found, safely secured into ce beneath a small rock, weight down on this soft matter, which was mostly of a pale white colour, but with small bits of it appearing like it had been burned.


    The group of four gathered around the finding, tilting their heads, at the strange mass, norger than a thumb, justying there, moving a bit as it slowly recovered its original shape from before being sttered by the rock.


    "This looks like a piece of burnt flesh to me" Griar spoke up, the others agreeing with a nod, hastily turning toward a still unexplored path, as the sound of rock dragging on the ground rang out, a slight bit of dust flying into view from behind the corner it had alle from. Enjoy new chapters from empire


    Instead of something rushing out of the veil of dark, the cave moved, immense masses of solid stone grinding against one another as everything shook, a strident noise assaulting their ears, the room they were in splitting apart into two, forcing the group to spit into a one to three ratio.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The walls were overflowing with a sudden burst of mana, preventing them from even leaving a crack into the rock.


    Cursing under his breath, Milo felt himself falling as everything turned, throwing him into another area entirely, rolling against the rough and jagged ground, he held his breath to avoid inhaling the old dust umted in these caverns, hastily casting a luminous orb to shine upon his surroundings.


    But he did not even require a light to catch sight of the man in here with him, his eyes and skull molten by an orange me, smouldering intensely as the one with a fire so close to his brain raise his arms in a slow manner, slowly forming a Y shape, stretching his entire body upward to make himself appear taller, standing on toes as he hummed a poor melody, staring up at the ceiling before bringing it down to stare at Milo.


    "My child, you are set on a very, very, very, very, very bad path, yes indeed, the path is awful, very bad¡­" he opened his mouth making a noise that could only be described as that of a rooster simultaneously chanting and drowning.


    "Oooh, don''t you want to go onto the right path? To do good? To not followws? To not have to hide your stealing and murdering from anybody, to be truly free, just as the gods did not intend? Mmh?"


    Milo dusted his shoulders, scratching the back of his head.


    "Sure, that- I mean, that sounds great, freedom sounds good" he looked around the room, it was nothing more than another pocket of empty space below ground, a naturally formed cave from the looks of it, the only exit situated right behind the burning man.


    The stranger sighed, shaking his head in the most exaggerated manner possible.


    "Ah, how harmful it is, to hear such graceful words uttered in a vile lie! Don''t you want to do what you desire, without fearing repercussions or the judgement of your peers, are you not tired of asking for, urgh, consent?"


    "What the hell is wrong with you?"


    "Oh! The pot calling the kettle ck, perhaps you ought to invest into a mirror, you might learn a few things by knowing how to recognise a filthy bastard, I did it myself, so I can tell that you are a little orphan" the man smiled, biting the inside of his cheek, drawing blood.


    "We are the scions of The Defiler, great man of great stature and greatck of care for what others consider bad, or immoral, or maybe psychotic" he spat a mouthful of blood, clicking in tongue, ushering in two dogs whose heads were burning with the same fire as him.


    "I was once a filthy follower of a righteous god, I was stupid, why be righteous, why be malevolent when you can be both, none, or switch depending on your mood? Why lock ourselves into tight containers, when he are free to wander the meadow that is life as we please?" he pped his arms, imitating the sounds of a bird, it was a pretty good impression.


    "Well then, so you have nothing to say if what I want is to beat the crap out of you, right?"


    "Oh oh! You are making progress, but freedom is riddled with challenges boy, you have to earn that right yourself,e! Come and rub that rugged fist into my delicate face, hihi, you crave it don''t you? My exquisite pain!"


    With a shout, the madman sent his attack dogs after Milo, grabbing ignited eyes, the fire grew darker, the farm boy did not back down and ran forward as well, sending a pulse of mana at one of the hounds, stopping it in its track whilst allowing the first one to lunge at him, grabbing the abhorrent beast by the throat, chucking it straight at the lunatic, who did not pay any heed to his pet, shooting out a condensed bullet of heretical me through the mutt, splitting it in two, the projectiles making odd movements and twirls, highly imprecise, but alsopletely unpredictable.


    "ept his fire inside you, you''ll love the warmth it procures"

 Chapter 174 Porcelain

    Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire


    As for Milo''s three allies during this cave diving session, they were all pulled together into the same room, into a pir of empty space carved in the ground, the width of the surroundings wasn''t much, only forming about a twenty meter circle, the ground here was much less rocky than before however, it was soft soil, with plenty of moss growing atop.


    In this damp and squishy atmosphere, the silhouette d in ckness unfolded itself, giving out ear grating cracking noises as it stood up to its maximum height, just above the two meter mark, the beautiful red rope tied around its neck stood out from its dark choice of attire.


    "Our valiant lord has spoken"


    "Die, die via haemorrhagia"


    The androgynous voice spoke clearly, the red rope tightly bound around its neck came undone of its own volition, falling to the ground like a drowsy serpent, the dark veil slipping down from the back of its wearer, revealing whaty beneath.


    "Praise the lord, offer up your blood, offer up all that you own, offer up your body, offer up your mind, offer up your soul, and ept to be reborn, only by being sculptured by a higher being can you hope to rid yourself of impurity" its body unfurled, revealing countless arms ending with sharp objects, knives sliced through the air, scissors opened and close as its elongated, feathery limbs stretched out all of their joints.


    The body skeletal, skin pulled thin against the bones, chest barely raising as the abomination breathed in and out, a perverse respiration muffled behind porcin fused with its head, mask etched so deeply that without a doubt, it had be one with the skull.


    Its grand speech and undressing was cut short, a flying de of sword mana aimed to cut through the puppeteer''s face, blocked rather easily for it had more arms than the three studentsbined, repeatedly clicking the scissors, taking a single step forward, beginning to dance toward them.


    Using the abject length of its limbs to try and take them all out in one fell swoop, swinging from both sides, aiming for a swift and simple victory, it''s wide movements may be graceful in a way that was hard to decipher, but theycked in speed and couldn''t be more predictable.


    Griar had run forward first, sliding in between the puppeteer''s legs, Helena simply used her wind element to float up into the tall expanse up above, going well out of the crafted abomination''s range.


    Lacking the means to worry, it simply focused on attacking Antieeld, who still remained standing in ce, instead of carving her to pieces, the lustrous alloy of knives and scissors hit something hard, much too durable to be destroyed in one go, two knights carrying great shields appeared to the youthfulmandant''s sides, the girl simply pointed the tip of her sabre at the center of the puppeteer''s mass, using the de as a wand to shoot out a mana bullet.


    Just as it registered the iing projectile, the existence of the other two students was forced back into its mind, the knight-in-training shing deep into both of its heels, knocking the frail fanatic out of bnce, an abject sin for them who spent their entire time dancing.


    From above, countless des of wind rained down, cutting and tearing into many arms, amputating a great deal of them, only red threadsing out of wounds, incapable of feeling the pain, it could still tell that this was a rather poor situation.


    Its body moved on its own, letting a strident scream that rattled the focus of the trio, allowing the puppeteer to do the unthinkable and finish dismembering its feet, standing tall on stumps, hugging itself tightly before unravelling it all, spinning like a whirlwind of sharpness and death, the speed grinding down its legs bottoms up, deep cuts were left in the walls of the cave.


    But there was no blood, where was the awaited carnage? The only ughter that urred was its own as the students were currently floating high above, the twond-bound youths having been swiftly scooped up by Helena.


    "Offer them up! Your lives!" gone was the lull generally inspired by the Ironic Puppeteers, with a strained growl, this one spoke like a maddened canine, meaninglessly swinging at empty air.


    A bullet of air came crashing through the top of its head, unleashing the suppressed winds inside, exploding from the inside out, and the graceful creature of nightmares fell inert to the ground, unable tond any blow.


    "Dear freaking gods, what the hell was this?" Griar ceased with the calmness once got his feet back on solid ground, pointed at the feathery remains.


    "An Ironic Puppeteer, I heard those guys worship a puppet, I hadn''t been told about their¡­ Unique designs" Antieeld looked at the corpse with interest, wondering how it was possible to alter somebody''s physicality to such an extent, they were lucky that only one showed up here, one more of those many-armed psychos and the party immediately would have gotten much less funny.


    "Miss Rosemary told us that they normally fight in groups of three or more, why was that one on its own? But more importantly, we need to regroup with Milo" Helena spoke rapidly, even if he would be protected by their teacher if things went south, she would prefer to be here to help.


    The farm boy in question rolled to the ground, tackling and grabbing a hold of the second dog, subduing it with a chokehold, breaking the animal''s neck before using the corpse as a projectile against its master.


    "Oh ah! No respect for those of lesser cognizance, heh? I understand, what''s the point of existing if you can''t evenprehend why food turns into poop?!" still as burning as ever, the unknown follower of heresy coated his hands in fire, or rather, he allowed his limbs to catch on fire as his body clearly wasn''t shielded from the me.


    The wall behind Milo, where the first projectile had ended its course was left with a deep hole and burn, the mark left on the stone simr to that of a burn of skin, cracks shining with the same orange glow.


    The me of The Defiler was not one that could be tamed.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Come on! Come on! Are you not interested even a little bit? We don''t limit ourselves to any department! I am sure you have desires you can''t act upon because of the idiotic beliefs of the ignorant masses,e on! Come out and say it, what the hell do you want?!" spouting about without a care in the world, the defiler tried to get a hold of Milo.

 Chapter 175 Lunacy Of Fire

    Milo dodged his sleazy attempts at grabs, punching him straight in the chest, the raving lunatic managing to step back, rendering the blow much less effective.


    "Listen here buddy, my most filthy desire is marrying my girlfriend and founding a family, I don''t think that fits into the whole defilement project of yours" Milo answered his question, making the man with an inferno in ce of eyes drop his shoulders, and somehow, somehow visibly frowned despite not having any sort of flesh where it mattered for such an expression.


    And he shed a tear, which instantly dried.


    "My boy, you are boring, there is no other word! That''s such a balless thing to say out loud, are you not ashamed? What else? Want to get a house? A stable job? Be a respectable man?N?v(el)B\\jnn


    You make me sick to my stomach, consider investing into a man''s phallus to rece your whiney bit" he rubbed over the dried tear, raising his hands.


    "Don''t you have anything else to say? To defend yourself from the degeneracy you just uttered of your own will? Like¡­" he mimed a most depraved action, he did it very well though, that impressed Milo for a second, that madman really conveyed such a precise act of lustful heresy with nothing but himself and his dexterity.


    "Your skills as a mime are to be praised, but fuck you man, being infected by a mind-controlling fire that turns you insane does not give you the right to do¡­ That"


    "Perhaps, but it grants me a perfectly viable excuse" the madman blew air into his smouldering palms, sending a wave of mes forward, the orange fire covering the view entirely, behaving erratically and heading into a seemingly random direction after breaking free of the initial momentum.


    It was no coincidence, Milo emerged from behind the zing curtain, taking the heretic by surprise.


    He tried to strike Milo with his right arm, but with fire absent from his limb, the student was able to seize hold of it, twisting around, bringing his elbow down on his enemy''s own, bending the whole thing in thepletely wrong direction.


    Groaning in pain, though it sounded awfully like a moan, the heretic gritted his worn out teeth, forming a smile as the fire licking his skull and brain flickered darkly, bringing his face up to that of Milo, unleashing a hail of chaos, the proximity with the me said to be capable of defiling the very gods themselves brought an odd feeling inside of the farm boy. Stay tuned to empire


    He threw the madman away like a ragdoll, instead of getting out of the way of the bullets, he simply changed the way itself, taking a note out of Osworth''s book, Milo rushed after the flying shape of the lunatic, grabbing him from behind and supplexing him directly into the rocky ground.


    "Ahah, you''re not very gentle!" despite the brain damage, heughed anyway, contorting himself in painful ways to quickly get back in action, kicking Milo to the face before once again bringing his hands up to his face, calling unto the heretical fire.


    Pulling the inferno into his mouth, onto his tongue as it condensed into a ball, burns appearing all over, preparing such an attack at close range could only mean two things in Milo''s mind, either it was bluff to pull him closer, or it was a bluff to make him back away reflexively, then, the attack could be unleashed.


    The farm boy was a simple man, if you open your mouth too much, he would shut you up, without hesitation, he uppercut the madman straight to the chin, forcing his lower jaw to reunite with its upper half, making him bite his own tongue off and knocking many teeth straight to dust.


    Flying and spinning before impacting the ceiling, the hereticid to the ground, twitching and chuckling.


    Just as his three teammates emerged from the way out of this room.


    "Are you alright Milo?" Helena ran up to him, inspecting his condition.


    "Yeah, just got kicked a bit" he replied.


    "Argh, is that the one? Damn I be, my big sorries big guy, I wasn''t aware of the specificities! Ah" with these parting words, the heretic passed away, the mes in his eye consuming his entire body in moments, leaving nothing of him behind.


    "Let''s find a way back to the surface, we''ll report our findings" Antieeld spoke up, no one having any objection to this, they had just ran into both an ironic puppeteer and defiler of the holy, under odd circumstances at that, those findings were definitely worth a good deal of points in the test, now, they just needed to present them in a good way, that task befell Antieeld, much more apt at the arts of logical nonsense than any of them.


    "It feels¡­ A bit odd to kill someone, even if insane and under the will of something else, that guy had a very distinct personality" Milo said aloud, it was odd, but he did not feel nearly as bad as when he had had to put down the reanimated corpse of David, an act he still kept to himself.


    "It''s always weird to see anything that was alive, unmoving and with a nk stare, but it is what it is, killing is an integral part of knighthood" Griar rubbed the back of his neck, it was one of the first things imparted upon him in his training toward bing a noble knight.


    Antieeld just shrugged her shoulders, she supposed that it was normal to feel a bit reluctant to ending a life, but she had not ever felt that way, they lived in a world where a system rewarded killing with XP after all, even if not considered the main source to power, it was still here.


    The quartet expected themselves to be split apart once more on their trip back to the surface, but were pleasantly surprised as nothing happened, the unexplored part of the mine they had been exploring had returned to its original state, Helena noting with a worried frown that the mage that had controlled the earth had done such a great job that he had left not even a speck of residuals anywhere.


    That was certainly information worth reporting as well.

 Chapter 176 Going Well

    ''Just as Osworth said¡­'' Rosemary looked off into the distance, having just received the findings of thest group by Antieeld, obviously, she was well aware of what they had found already, she wouldn''t throw them into those mines without keeping a keen eye on them, she had itched to intervene multiple times, but in the end, they had managed by themselves.


    That was something to be proud of, the three that had faced against the puppeteer hadn''t demonstrated ster team spirit, but great trust in one another''s capabilities still, they had mostly done their own thing, not getting into one another''s way was the crux of fighting as a group however, so that was good in her book.


    As for Milo, she had been worried about him considering that he was fighting a defiler, the heretical me was known to be pretty much a one-hit KO for the vast majority of the poption, Rosemary was only confident because the fire wasn''t truly under the caster''s control, the fire had a mind of its own, but it did not actively fight back per se, with her mastery over fire, she could take control of the mes for little while without risking anything.


    Otherwise, the concept that defiler''s were around would have made it a no go for her student to get anywhere near here.


    Thankfully, the boy knew how to handle himself, and also, this particr madman had seemed a bit too focused on talking rather than attacking, although despite all his grandiose speeches, it was undeniable that he had been rather proficient with the me, not a mindless husk to its defilement.


    ''That puppeteer was a rather advanced one as well, not the sort that we are used to, they attacked by themselves too, clearly, the earth mage set up those encounters purposefully, but why? How could the two other groups agree to be put in such predicaments?


    The earth mage could have assisted them in battle, it makes no doubt that more lunatics are to be found down there too¡­'' she tapped her forehead, trying to find logic amidst the madness, the behaviour of the two couldn''t really be counted on as proof that they were on board.


    Both are too deep into their own, filthy little worlds to not preach to the first people they encounter.


    ''No signs of Aliz¨¦ though'' this particr group, or organisation was one she was much less familiar with.


    Even if small, the defiler and puppeteers were old, perhaps even ancient for the followers of heresy, their patron was said to have walked the earth at around the same time as the Elven Light, whenever that time immemorial had been.


    Aliz¨¦ however, for all intents and purposes, seemed to have been created very recently, their influence was still small, their ns unclear, Rosemary had inquired about what Osworth knew in greater details after their discussion in the library, he was certainly more knowledgeable than he typically let on.


    He had even heavily implied that the one responsible for the copses, who seemed to be the earth mage, was someone he personally knew, that was an odd detail to share without boration.


    But he had echoed the idea that it wasn''t a simple partnership, that they were somehow forming an army through allyship down into the mines, plotting against the crown, against the country, the people, they had delusions of grandeur.


    No signs of Aliz¨¦ and their intoxicated goons were to be seen however, she had no idea what the leader might look like, but amidst puppet-people and burning heads, it shouldn''t be a herculean task to figure it out.


    Groups went one after another into the different mines, some finding absolutely nothing, some being dragged into fights the same manner as before, a few requiring intervention for their lovable teacher, who mercilessly made them into charcoal.


    A few days passed like this, one group diving at a time, although Rosemary could easily watch over all of them at once, it was always preferable to be careful when possible, they had plenty of time, she put her all in watching a single group at a time, keeping the rest of her precious students close-by.


    Actualbat was of great value, especially to those talented but that had been seriouslycking in actual practice, they would certainly already do much better against the two bodyguards.


    Speaking of them, Gelter would be shifting ufortably everytime hisdy would go in, absolutely straining himself to remain in ce, not liking it one bit that she had to have even the smallest of interaction with those degenerates.


    "Aherm, so, Osworth knew of this?" he asked, his tone calm.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "Yes, he thought that it would be a great learning experience for Antieeld, and you have to admit, her progress is outstanding thanks to this, she is getting better and better at coordinating her group, even making friends, don''t take it badly, Antieeld was a bit reluctant to be friendly with anyone at first, she seems so stern and confident, but is actually very shy!


    That''s pretty cute" Gelter turned to her, silent.


    "Lady Antieeld has always been cute, I have apanied her for all of her life, she was made aware of her responsibilities and inborn talent, gift of the system, at an early age, with knowledge that she was meant tomand others, she has struggled between interacting like a normal girl, or as themandant she is expected to be, no matter what thew regards, or how they may appear, kids are kids muchter than we believe"


    "Children need to be cared for and protected from what they can not handle, I know this, but I still vividly remember her younger self when I see mydy, it is difficult for me to imagine her fighting and killing, unlike Osworth, he does not know her" he suddenly jolted straight, raising one hand up to his helm.


    Settling back into position without another word, ignoring the questioning re of the volcano witch.


    "Excuse me Gelter, but what''s up with that reaction?"


    "..."


    "It is nothing important, I wasn''t supposed to say anything" he replied cryptically, clearly unwilling to speak up any longer.


    "I am her teacher Gelter, I only want her good, and so do you" Rosemary crossed her arms.


    The knight remained motionless for a few more moments, his expression unreadable underneath his armour.


    He sighed.

 Chapter 177 Shady

    Gelter sighed heavily, taking in his surroundings before saying his part.


    "Lady Antieeld only has one bodyguard, myself, this Osworth man, I have no idea what his background is, he is just an odd wanderer that mydy found interesting, she just sensed potential from him and handed over one of her insignias, telling him toe to Toordefer Academy, she didn''t even ask for his name, and hees this total stranger, dressed in a bizarre fashion, from head to toe covered in countless ways to mask his identity, with a different voice, inventing himself a mission he had been on for a long time, acting like he is just a normal bodyguard of Lady Antieeld, not even giving her the honorifics, like he knows her that well that it isn''t necessary!" he tensed down, shaking his head dejectedly.


    "I did not want to attract suspicion upon someone mydy had chosen herself, and I also didn''t want to tell you about this, seeing how well you seemed to be getting along with him, it''s just that, I can not reasonably put an ounce of trust into this guy, Lady Antieeld seemed to believe he was charmed by hermanding talent as others had been in the past, and his behaviour has been perfect, I don''t like him, but he is right that this is a great asion for her"


    "His odd lies to appear like an older follower made me think that was only vying for a good position and to be in greater view of others"


    "Well, that is certainly strange, but he hasn''t done anything too suspicious-" she stopped, putting her attention on the knight next to her.


    "There is something else you want to say" tonepletely t, she did not phrase this like a question in the least.


    "Yes, you must have thought of it already, but Osworth remained at the academy as per his own will, he is the one who spun up a reason to remain behind, mydy did not order him to do anything, but do not worry!


    The headmaster and the other teachers are there, even if he wished to do something condemnable, he wouldn''t be able to" Gelter reassured her, as well as himself, mostly attempting to shield hisdy from criticism by defending Osworth.


    "That is true, the old fossil can hold his own, especially within the academy, I am rather displeased that an unknown variable was introduced inside of the learning grounds, there are children of nobles of other nations here, even of kings, I''ll have to talk to Antieeld about this"


    Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Rosemary seemed a bit dejected.


    Why was that whenever she met a nice man, there had to be something shady about them?


    "Apologies, once more, but I am certain that Osworth is naught but a bit of an entric" the knight said, just as the group of four including hisdy came out of yet another expedition.


    ____


    Deep beneath the earth, seated atop nothing more than protruding rocks, three figures formed a triangle, on one end, the immobile figure of the beautiful puppet lord, two of its devoted followers standing close behind, one of them speaking out words in its stead.


    Right across from the puppet, a smouldering person dressed in molten armour, stuck to the skin, fused with flesh and muscles, a majority of the defiler leader''s skull could be seen, deformed by the intensity of the mes nesting within.


    Also apanied by two subordinates, much less dignified andposed than the puppeteers, twitching and vibrating in ce, needing all of their willpower to remain still.


    In thest corner of their disposition, there was a skeleton, who did not waste much time before standing and speaking up, tapping the rocky ground with a grey staff, nearly as tall as the undead was, its surface was rough and jagged, anyone with the poor idea of having skin on their hands would have the displeasure of cutting themselves trying to hold this thing.


    "I havee to the understanding that you all had something to tell me" dressed in an ancient brown robe, suffused with dust amassed over countless years, his voice was dry, rough the ears like sand on the skin, definitely masculine.


    His bones were rtively frail, adorned with signs of wear and cracks, especially on the left side of the skull, appearing like something or someone had unsessfully attempted to smash the skeleton''s head in.


    Eyes ring with dark brown mes, he stared at the defiler''s own burning gaze, unshaken by directly staring at heresy personified, this little spark much too removed from the real deal to shake up any sort of animated corpses.


    "You filthy grave fucker, do you think we wouldn''t notice what you are doing? Thought you could get away with it, taking us out one by one, are you actually working against us?!" ming up, the defiler spat his words like vitriol at the emotionless carcass, hitting the air with his fist.


    "Our great lord agrees with the molten one, you are taking us for fools, eliminating us one by one" one of the puppeteers ryed the words of the puppet.


    "You are nothing more than a skeleton, a stripped body, nothing but bones, I certainly hope you have a good excuse, otherwise I''ll get onto some nec-" the undead stuck his staff down again, silencing theints and threats.


    "Yes, I am indeed trimming you all down, like weed, like you livings deserve, is there a problem? You agreed to follow me into those mines, caverns and depths, knowing well that this wouldn''t be a grand friendship, you all vye to dispose of one another, I act upon it, are you going to do something about it?


    I assure you, if the n works out, you will gain much infamy and the kingdom will be weakened, that is what you desire, no?"


    "I can kill you all, right here, right now, the spells are already casted, they just need my approval" reminding them of where they stood, the skeleton walked right through the wall behind, phasing right through the stone.


    "Bastard, but he really just forces his will on us, we really are his little things down there" his mood switching brutally.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The puppeteers and their lord simply remained silent.

 Chapter 178 Whats Coming

    The undead''s bony feet scraped against the ground, fingers and toes twitching at an odd tempo, bringing his hands together, just in front of the heavily faded emblem drawn directly onto the front of his robe, a sign of having once belonged to the now inactive army of the dead.


    "Loimos, get over here will you?


    You should be done on your end" turning to a dark corner, where a motionless figureid on its knees, head tilted back, armspletely limp, dressed into an antique armour, simrly touched by the decay of time as was the attire of the skeleton, the suit of protective gear jolted into motion, a sudden twitch, a dark purplish glowing out of the thin slits of the helm for a brief instant.


    Rising up only using its legs.


    "The headmaster has been secured, our foothold within the academy is guaranteed unless he is discovered" Loimos immediately reported, his disposition utterly different from that of his Osworth persona, back to the very definition of undead.


    "Great, that One vampiress is more capable than she appears, her concoction is a great addition to our collection, it should be high time to get done with this then, the livings are growing more dissident" speaking of their temporary allies, the mage snarled.


    "When is that woman going to allow all of her shitlings to step in at once?" rubbing his cracked chin, the sorcerous undead hadn''t had such an opportunity in a long, long time, and it was all thanks to Loimos.


    It had been a chance encounter, proof that fate aligned with the dead, that once again, they would rise from outer tomb and rain ruin upon the proliferating filth that was life, it had been so long since their glory days.


    "Nowadays, even puppets get to be alive, simply preposterous, I would crushed this fool into jam without a second thought were he not useful" revelling in long awaited progress, Unacunerra, known as The Earthen Catastrophe and royal guard to his majesty had not seen such a thing in too many years.


    The marks of his failure still clung to his skeletal form even to this day, of course, there had been no way for him to possibly defeat The Elven Light by himself, but the knowledge of this fact did not alleviate anything.


    "Soon, our legion shalle back together, stronger than it used ever was, facing against our enemies, who have never been so weak" he looked forward to the reascension of death.


    This all had been put into motion after Loimos somehow managed to not be destroyed entirely at the hand of Lady Syklon, it was technically his own attack that did the damage but that did not matter, all that was of importance was that he was not defeated in the truest of sense.


    Loimos was a skeleton capable of piloting his severed limbs wherever they remained, a great deal of them at the same time, and over a distance that seemed to simply not end.


    The putrid skeleton had lost many bits of himself over the course of his career, getting hacked up and thrown around was a typical urrence, there was that arm cut off by Helena way back in Throdqdmond, but it had eventually been destroyed by the residents to calm their wrath.


    Of course, they were the countless hands that had been wandering Muho Chitai as well, but the disembodied limb of interest was one that had been left in Findpasser, down into the pit resting in the center of the city, inhabited by countless bat-like creatures, after his conversation with Irmandos, he had simply left the hand down there, enveloping it in rot, his death force had remained here all of this time.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    And as such, he was able to regrow fully from there, saving quite a bit of time travelling, emerging out at night, making his exit undetected, and without surprises, he had then decided to head for Bourgliotte,st city to check out on his list.


    He had not been able to get very close to the city, not to mention inside, the country Bourgliotte belonged to was Starkefolten, they enjoyed having armed forces and power in the form of violence, vestige of their old times as a warmongering nation.


    There had indeed been a crypt inside, the monument was so huge it could provide shade for half of the city, and it appeared to only be peeking out from the ground, it was actually rather easy from Loimos to tell that this was the right ce, since any goober with the slightest of senses of energy would be sted by the intensity of the struggle, a seal of phantasmagorical proportions, intertwined with both a powerful radiant energy and life force unlike any other the undead had ever witnessed suppressing the death force the building seemed to naturally emit.


    Faraday had said that the king''s castle was permanently shrouded with his dominion, so the struggle he could so simply make out from such a distance was most certainly the undead king''s dominion actively fighting the seal.


    Such a duel could not possibly go unnoticed, it was unclear the how or why, but Starkefolten had erected a great city, or rather, a bastion to keep a watch and contain the crypt, whilst it might appear like a city, Loimos''s observation quickly revealed that there seemed to be no simplemoners within the walls, even the merchants bringing in goods were awfully powerful, clearly over qualified regarding their position.


    Bourgliotte had countless walls and defensive measures, guards armed to the teeth and garbed in the most exquisite of equipment avable, even getting anywhere close to the city was certain to result in the undead''s eradication from the face of this world.


    Although this country was known for its military might, itcked any individual that could pretend to reach the level of the likes of Syklon or Rosemary, but all of this, it was the work of countless people from many different fields, created, crafted, perfected over countless generations, it was nothing to scoff at, and reaching the king of the dead would be a troublesome affair, an affair requiring immense firepower, overwhelming numbers and great ingenuity.


    In short, the might of the dead was needed.


    It was time for the dreadful lords of yore to rise again, for the chosen champions of death to fight once more.

 Chapter 180 Knight VS Knight

    Gelter first attempted to simply jump back out, not wanting to waste any time away from Antieeld during such an emergency, but he had no choice but to defend himself as the knight garbed in ancient armour swung his weapon at him, a halberd with a nk banner decorating it.


    ''Damnit!'' The bodyguard was pushed back, clearly, he could not simply weasel his way out of this confrontation, and unfortunately, the enemy in question was not weak either.


    Clutching his longsword, he lunged forward, the speed of his attack far surpassing that of what he had shown before, his de cutting through the air with abnormal swiftness, before crashing into a wall, obliterating with disconcerting ease.


    The enemy knight dodged, feinted a sweep at his legs before stepping back some more, striking the end of his halberd onto the ground, an odd white smoke shrouding the weapon, rippling across the ground, emerging from the ripples were misty figures, appearing like mere footsoldiers.


    Gelter released his own battle art, pulling in the summons with ease, their weight far from that of whatever people they were supposed to emte, their master however, as though he already knew what wasing, had firmly nted his feet on the ground, using his armament as a crutch to avoid the gravitational attraction.


    Without mercy, the bodyguard did not remove his sword from the ground, maintaining the powerful pull, ignoring the foggy presences, rushing for the main man himself, ready to plunge his fist enhanced with his inborn ability, his actual main source of power, owning this particr art was but a coincidence after all.


    Gelter true ability, was to manipte the weight of objects, focusing on his gauntlet, well aware that if that punchnded, it would most certainly be of lethal consequences, and he was going to hit him right in the center of the chest, even through a hefty suit of armour, the shock would certainly stop this unknown knight''s heart on the spot, and if not, well, the damage should be sufficient to secure a victory still.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The bodyguard was in a hurry to end this, however, he was not facing a mere man, but a most perfidious undead.


    Loimos let go of his weapon, allowing it to be pulled in by the well of gravity, straight in the living''s path, forcing him to think and do something about it, meanwhile, however, he further condensed his rot, shaping it into something of greater weight.


    Rendering him immune to the pull, the strength of which could not be adjusted by Gelter, the initial force of the pull was stronger than what it settled upon, but he was too far from his sword to do anything with this fact, he caught the halberd, it was not his preferred weapon, neither was itpatible with his battle art, but with his innate skill, it could be made into a gravely powerful tool of murder.


    Gelter''s ability was something integral to himself, not a skill given by the system, as such, it had influenced his body, granting him greater natural strength to allow for a greater usage of this ability, he could swing weight that would rip people''s arm off without much strain, confident in his strength, he rose the halberd, aiming to smash it down onto the ground with his maximum power, copsing this entire ce on itself.


    Having noticed Loimos now capable of moving freely in spite of the gravity, he decided that it would take too long to properly put him down, he had to get away from here right this instant, so he would bury the both of them, and bet that he would be able of emerging on the surface, which was not that far away at all.


    The undead wasn''t impressed, he was not a fool, he had not handed over a weapon to Gelter without thinking, he had ways to evade a punch, and even had he not, having some bones crushed was a non-issue.


    Before the weapon could tear the stone asunder, it all turned into ck blood, flowing onto the bodyguard, falling and sttering like gtin, smoke rising from the armour as the acid bore into it.


    At the same time, the gravitational pull ceased, the de falling to the ground as blighted blood had seeped into the ground and devoured its de sunken into the earth, the foggy soldiers get back up, swinging their transparent weapons at Gelter''s back, their hits bouncing off, like peasants encountering a noble on the battlefield, they could not get past his defences.


    Loimos could however, invading the academy and this very event had been nned for quite a while now, his mastery over the primeval rot, death force and other concepts had grown higher, the mist soldiers were dispersed by the bodyguard, the undead and living engaging in good old fashioned fist fighting and martial arts for a few moments, ceasing when Gelter bent in Loimos''s chestte with a punch, sending against the wall.


    The man did not stop and continued on attacking, his attacks shattering the wall as Loimos rolled against the rocky surface, receiving another punch that twisted both his helm and skull a whole one hundred and eighty degrees, he responded by attempting to grab the bodyguard, but his arm was caught into an armlock.


    No problem, with a twist, the undead relinquished his limb to the gobsmacked living, who was unable to react properly when the discarded arm detonated, corrosive blood sttering everywhere, shrapnel of both bones and iron scraping against the armour, the small explosion deafened Gelter in one ear, disorienting him for barely a second, just one more second and he would have been able of catching himself, there were no break to be had.


    Loimos kicked him in the back of his knees, getting behind him and grabbing him into a chokehold, disgustingly vile rot spreading out from his stump like vines of nightmares, twisting around the living''s body, pumping blood and miasma at point nk range.


    The bodyguard cursed loudly, feeling his defences being bypassed by the purplish mist, his skin sizzling and bloating in contact to it, with a groan, he managed to flip the undead over his shoulder, stomping down toward his head, only for the skeleton''s neck to crank itself way out of the natural bounds.


    A word of death tongue was uttered, making the stressed bodyguard halt for an instant.


    "Damnit¡­"

 Chapter 183 The Retreat

    "Gelter, Gelter! Can you hear me? Don''t let that thing grow any further!" Antieeld kneeled next to her knight, lifting him up.


    He was not yet dead, but he was not responsive, his means ofmunication had been targeted first, ensuring that no problematic things could be uttered.


    "Hey¡­ Hold on for a while longer, Miss Rosemary can surely heal you" the zone duel was still raging, neither of the two casters allowing the other to gain the upper hand.


    The knight could make no sound, he instead raised one hand up in the air, clearing hisdy''s face off of tears, the weight she was carrying suddenly increased, Gelter''s head tilted to the side, no more strength in his muscles.


    Death had imed him, and soon enough, the crimson growths imed his remains as well, she wouldn''t even get to give him a proper burial.


    ''A gue knight, huh¡­''


    _____


    The area was torn to shreds, the sh between Rosemary and Unacunerra was of a small scale, but the sheer amount of damage they were causing was mind-boggling, the constant change in the ambient mana was akin to corruption.


    ''That witch, is rather problematic'' the skeleton mage had the advantage of endurance and tolerance, however, he was definitely on his backfoot here, the volcano witch was pushing back against him with great ferocity, never weakening in all of this time, there were no doubts in his mind, his zone was going to lose soon, and once it did, he would be engulfed in hers without protection, instantly burning away into nothingness.


    Now, this was something that impressed him, he had faced many mages bred and trained during the lengthy war of old, those times had called for life to surpass itself, the strong, collective desire of the living to fight back against the inevitable, against death itself had allowed a good quantity of heroes to be emerge, even if a zone remained a rare urrence even in this age, he had had the asion of shing with a lot of them over the decades, some had been more difficult than others, some had attacked him in numbers, forcing him to struggle against three simultaneous zones, he had crushed them all, their corpses raised as undeads to instantly throw back at the filth of life.


    However, now, countless years after, constantly refining his understanding and mastery, he was being defeated by a single mage, he had not grown rusty, an undead could not, he was stronger than back then.


    ''She is too dangerous to be left alive¡­ Teaching those critters, but I am too weak to face her head-on, for now'' grasping a small crystal in gloved hand, Unacunerra did not wait for thest moment to make his escape, using the spell trapped in this item by crushing the material, he vanished into thin air, his zone remaining standing even without his support, but without its caster, it was quickly crushed.


    Rosemary did not bother to question what had just happened, no longer preupied with him, the entirety of the puppeteers and defilers fell victim, only a few of them left alive, there were a few questions they had to be asked about.


    None of her beloved students had died, though, quite a lot of them had sustained injuries, many quite dire at that, but her healing prevented anything from worsening.


    "Are you doing alright?" she floated down to Milo, who was closest to her, and had been in a rather tight spot.


    "I thought I was going to die, but I didn''t, I am pretty happy with that- How is Helena, I mean, the others?" the defilers had not been messing around for once, they didn''t bother with any sort of banter, did not start monologuing about the strangest of things either, hell, none preached the goodness of bing a depraved mess.


    They had simply focused fire right at him, seemingly not even registering the presence of the puppeteers as they shot right through them, apparently, their pact of non-aggression or whatever wasn''t tight enough to prevent acts of literal insanity.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Your girlfriend is perfectly fine, none of them can reach her up in the air, she''s this way" his teacher directed him, instead moving over to where Antieeld was standing.


    The littlemandant, as Gelter used to call her as a child, had gone onto her own mission, as if possessed, she had moved and decided to get information from the many enemies wandering around.


    Even the lunatics did not feel like praising their puppet lord or heretical forefather, she was allowing the full might of her talent at point nk whilst shaking and pping them in the head repeatedly, but they could only stutter and offer up useless information, those guys seemed to not have a clue about anything that had happened before today.


    "Antieeld" Rosemary carefully ced one hand on the girl''s shoulder, expecting anger and sorrow.


    "Miss, they don''t know anything, have you ever heard of a gue knight? He was clearly not affiliated with either of those two, maybe he is of Aliz¨¦ instead? But he did say that he had been hired¡­" she was only met with disturbing calmness, her eyes and face still wet with tears.


    "Hum¡­" knocking out the stray defiler that Antieeld had scooped up, Rosemary cupped up Antieeld''s face.


    "Don''t you worry, Gelter was a proud knight, he was always ready to ept death for your sake, wherever he ended up, he would only think of you and your wellbeing still, tell me, what do you think is best for you right now?" she appealed to Antieeld logical mind instead of lingering on too long on the emotional stuff she was not verypetent at.


    The littlemandant seriously thought about it, having been doing nothing but acting upon her wish for answers, in some sort of trance.


    Without saying anything, she just hugged her teacher, her face directly up against Rosemary''s vicle, which was a bit ufortable but even if it felt like getting stabbed repeatedly, she wouldn''t have said anything.


    The volcano witch awkwardly rubbed her student''s back, not quite certain how this whole process was supposed to go, handling people''s crying their hearts out into your chest was not in her area of expertise.


    She was more of the sort to suggest solutions to problems.


    ''What a goddamned disaster, why in hell would so many of them even be here to begin with? And where did they find someone with a zone? This guy was seriouslypetent too, and a gue knight? Never heard of that either''


    ''Oh, and she''s moved her head down¡­''

 Chapter 184 Royal Measures

    Looking back, it was clear that this was their first big move against us.


    __


    "It would appear that the ones that had been behind the copses of various mines were the defilers and puppeteers, investigation and interrogation did not reveal much, they had taken strong measures to avoid any information from getting out, the captured members of both group had no prior memories before theirst assault, some reports seemed to have been indicating that a new group, called Aliz¨¦, had been part of the effort, but no concrete evidences of their involvement have been confirmed"


    "The numbers that have been both killed and captured are tremendous, it makes no doubt that neither of them retain much of their forces, most intriguing, are the two unknown variables that participated in the battle, the so-called knight of gue, and the mysterious caster"


    "Both were sighted for the very first time on this very day, a knight of good power wielding a potent ailment, but most concerningly, the mage could not only make use of a zone, he was able to do battle with Rosemary, The Volcano Witch, she reported that the refinement and expertise of her enemy was higher than hers, only dominating the fight thanks to her inherent advantages"


    "We suspect that both of those men were hired des, the defilers and puppeteers are rather weak overall, they wished to cause discord and stir up troubles by ughtering students of the academy, some of them from other nations, and the talent holders, it makes no doubt that had their n gone their way, the diplomatic rumble would have been unmanageable"


    "But of course, doing so in the presence of powerful foes would have been difficult for them, Miss Rosemary made it impossible, and Gelter, the fallen knight, was also a force to be reckoned with, making it likely that both were paid a hefty sum to take care of those two, despite this, their attack was a failure"


    This was the sort of melodies that had been gracing the king''s ears for the past few hours, he had not been left untold of this ident for long, of course, having students be attacked wasn''t a good look, but Agilulf Wanneck was quick to turn the whole thing on its head, managing to convince anyone, even if begrudgingly, that this attack clearly showed that the students could not possibly into better hands.


    Where else could youth be ambushed in this way and everyone ending up perfectly fine? Only under Toordefer''s care.


    "First, they invade this pce, then they dare to try and harm students of our respected academy, those fools have gotten too big for their britches, their existence will no longer be tolerated, I will do the unthinkable, and expend funds to eradicate what''s left of them" the king uttered, sitting in his lustrous throne, making his subjects gasp.


    "Also, I will take responsibility for the regrettable passing of Gelter, may he be given post-mortem honours and titles, invite hisdy here as well, I have to present my apologies" he signalled for some pages to go ahead and do just that.


    Agilulf Wanneck cleared his throat, standing up from his throne, his bright red and exquisite cloak fluttering.


    "This whole thing is certainly dubious at best, powerhouses don''t grow on trees, a lone knight I could understand, but a mage that has mastered zone?


    Our dear volcano witch spoke very highly of his capabilities at that, in this day and age, only Rosemary was a known user of this supreme technique, considering this and putting it together with Audit''s visions, I will admit that I worry for the wellbeing of this nation"


    The king admitted, allowing the many of his subjects gathered in his throne room to speak amongst themselves before striking the ground with his sceptre.


    "Starkefolten, Pezerx, Millipolo, Glittegoyaume, Dschungend and Tochi, mightiest nations and either ancient or descendants of old superpowers, none seem to truly be taking the threat the prophet warned us of, they don''t believe his ramblings, and they believe themselves capable of handling whatever it is that ising for us anyways" he mentioned Tochi even though he had since long been made aware of the less than ideal state the country had been left in.


    In fact, the mad prophet had made a greater job of gathering allies than himself, Agilulf Wanneck had heard that Quideos Audit had somehow managed to convince one of his old friends of helping in some capacity, clearly, he was constantly working toward preventing the terrible fate he witnessed, if it was all another one of his delusions, it would have ended a long time ago.


    "On top of ridding ourselves of pests, we shall begin further reinforcing our defences, someone go get me all of the Starkefoltians diplomats residing on our grounds, we''ll get a hold of their defence technologies"


    "My loyal nobles, begin training troops on yournds, we will slow down on our food exports, stock up for ourselves, catch a hold of the death hunters, we''ll offer them a good ce in Tamaris and advantages for settling in here¡­" the king enumerated countless measures and things he wanted done, finally turning to his three otherworlders.


    "As for you three, you stillck in experience, you missed the chance to battle defilers and puppeteers, so you''ll be participating in their extermination, Pierre-Orn¨¦e will be apanying you"


    Last time, he had sent them out to find the heretics and doll lovers, but they hadpletely missed their hideout, having reasonably crossed off the mines of the list of where to look since they had been made aware that the volcano witch would be there for a little while, there was no point to bother.


    He continued on exining specifics, his nobles taking notes, the servants running around, the king had thought long and hard about all that could be done to prepare for what was looming ahead.


    Just as he prepared to end his speech, a page arrived sprinting into the room,pletely red, panting heavily, raising his index finger, trying to say something but running into some problems.


    "Breathe in and out slowly my child, who is it that is barging in this time? Did I summon him by saying his name? That would not even surprise me¡­"


    "My King, there are three of them!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

 Chapter 185 The Menace

    As expected, the troublemaker was good old Quideos Audit, once again letting his manic tendencies lose in public, the fact that he hadn''t arrived at the same time as the page was because he had brought with him someone with more manners, the woman was just itching to start speaking but held it in, veins throbbing on her forehead, constantly pushing her sses back up as it kept slipping.


    The third visitor was really the one who had made the young servant sprint at a speed he hadn''t even thought possible, even though she was clearly the mostposed and ready to wait.


    ''Well, that is¡­ Quite the line-up¡­'' Agilulf Wanneck was back sitting on his throne, not quite certain who to hear out first, he wasn''t even certain who the woman apanying Quideos was, she was dressed in nice brown pants, a waistcoat of the same colour and white shirt, clearly more of an intellectual than anything, he tried to search his memory for who it would be, he had met and read many things, so he had probably engaged with her in some way before.


    But before solving that mystery, he instead signalled for the third visitor to speak up, he did not need any introduction to know who she was.


    "Greetings, King Agilulf Wanneck, I am Lady Syklon, and I wish to ask for asylum" the petite woman went straight to the point, not any less eloquent and graceful than the king himself.


    "Are you willing to help me with your great knowledge of battle arts? To train troops? As well as lending your strength to this nation?" he asked, already fairly familiar with her from a few business dealings, as well as one other source, though thatst one wasn''t very reliable.


    "Sure" Lady Syklon wasn''t feeling like engaging in negotiations with him, everyone had their area of expertise and this one was the domain of the king of Tamaris, he could tantly scam people even with a de against his neck, an absolute nightmare it was to engage him in money talk.


    Moreover, she really did not see a problem with what he asked of her, uninterested in ruling over Tochi, she had travelled to Tamaris, the best ce to settle down by far, although his demands seemed to indicate that he was meaning to get into a fight, she did not question him on the spot, simply nodding with a satisfied smile, it was time to have a ce of her own again.


    "Quideos, what do you want to say to me? It if is concerning your ord with archbishop Jo, I have already been made aware of this"


    "Ah!" the prophet shouted, looking around for a few seconds.


    "Sorry about that, it is simply that, as you know, as I know, as everybody should know, oh is it known-"


    "Sorry again, my visions tell me much of the horroring ahead, of the utter strength of the forces that will soon march upon us all, trampling down onto us, we well be like ants missing half their legs faced with an entire pack of anteaters that can manipted the winds as they wish¡­"


    Shaking his head, he presented the woman vibrating in ce.


    "This here is the illustrious, the grand, the one and only, the smartest woman I have ever met, far ahead of my own mother, I can tell as much! Bethome Meleme, she writes books as fast as I can have uncontrolled seizures on the floor from my mind numbing visions, it takes some skill!" he presented her, the king''s eyebrows rising in understanding upon hearing that name.


    "Hum, ah yes, I meant to say beforehand that my visions whilst harrowing and rather detailed, details I am not allowed to share, I can say that the exact nature of the disaster has never been made obvious, all that I know is that enormous amount of death they''ll cause, and here is my good friend, Bethome is convinced that-"


    "The undead! It''s the freaking walking corpses, it''s obvious, all of your visions clearly point to the danger having to do with death, so much that it is almostical, the undead are rising again!" she had a small outburst before settling down, assuming a veryposed attitude out of the blue.


    ''They attract one another like mas¡­''


    "Aherm, my king, I have been working on uncovering the truth of the ancient past for most of my life now, and the most interesting period is one that seemed to havested for centuries at a minimum"


    "The war against the undead?" the king was indeed quite familiar with her works, he just didn''t realise that Bethome Meleme was a woman at all, she published her works herself and did not have a known address, writers did like their privacy, so he had not had the asion of meeting her before.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Well, it is more like the war against life¡­ I wholeheartedly believe that what Quideos is predicting is the rising of the undead filth once again, although I was able of confirming that whilst the undead forces were defeated then, none mentioned a total victory, none of the gravelords that I found out about were even guessed to have been taken out, all that I know, is that their king was tightly sealed in his crypt, which I can only suppose is linked to the guarded ruin of Starkefolten, as for the rest, it is all up in the air"


    "Well, I am not very knowledgeable of the war with the undead, details are hard toe by, you are the only one that seem to have any sort of knowledge on it, and still, I don''t suppose that you know much about the gravelords and such?" the king asked, considering the possibility, if it was really an undead menace that wasing, then it was even worse than his wildest ideas.


    He had thought of many things, but none were as obviously damning as the dead that hates life, their numbers could endlessly grow as they lost theirs, although incredibly rare nowadays and regrly hunted down by death hunters, the undeads still hold a reputation as difficult enemies to face.


    "The folks of the underground tower probably know more" she refrained her want to spat on the ground, not a very big fan of those corpse lovers, who hid in their towers situated somewhere hidden, sending out papers singing the praises of the undead.


    "Very well then, let me try to contact them" the king casually mentioned.


    ''He makes it sound like that is an easy thing to do¡­''

 Chapter 186 Three Ways

    Barely a day after the attack, just a few hours after the king''s speech and audience, something came to disrupt the peace of Tamaris once more, contrary to what had been assumed, the two groups of lunatics were not nearly done just yet, appearing all over the country and even inside of other nations, bringing the attention of all forces onto them, their numbers far exceeding what had once been believed.


    "They are taking the bait with excessive ease, the greater majority is hyper focused on them" Unacunerra, remarked standing straight inside of a fairly tight space, the atmosphere was odd inside of here.


    Dusty, damp, suffocating, the ground was unsteady, it had actual ss windows, but they were clouded by severalyers of grime, barely allowing light through, dark curtains that appeared to have been mauled by packs of wolves flowed over them, both on the inside and outside.


    The wood creaked endlessly even without movements, each nk disced from where it should have been in a minuscule way, bent out of way by humidity, random chains and ropes hanging from the ceiling, crates and barrels ced haphazardly, empty cobwebs decorated the corners.


    "What are the two leaders up to now?" the earthen mage questioned the blonde vampire, who swung her limp wrist in his direction.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "The puppet is back to its usual ce, hiding off into the wounds with its harem of caretakers or whatever, as for hot head, he has taken a peculiar route,st time I heard, he had boarded a ship with his strongest followers and sailed into the ocean, the ocean! Can you believe that?


    He clearly has something in mind, but I don''t know if that will happen, naval trade and travel is rare for a reason" she reported, casually sliding across the small bench built directly into the small space.


    Feinting a yawn and putting her arm over Loimos''s shoulder, who did not react, as though he was a piece of furniture.


    "Now that most are focused on the defilers and puppeteers, we will be allowed to make bigger moves unnoticed"


    Indeed, this had been the greater part of the n all along, a mere act of diversion on a continental scale, allowing each of them to act upon different ns at once without alerting of the undead threat.


    This had all only be possible thanks to the association of the three corpses, Loimos had encountered Unacunerra in the mines, royal guard of his majesty alongside Slotriig, the ancient skeleton had been a bit lost until their meeting, unable to do anything of great consequence.


    Loimos had introduced his fellow to One''s existence, and swiftly moved to get in touch with the vampire, she was more than a little happy to see her favourite decaying pile again, and the mage wasn''t very thrilled about her antics, but credit had to be given where credit is due, she had had extensivework of connections, her presence and influence already well established in the underworld of criminality, this was invaluable to the dead''s noble cause, Unacunerra being a highly skilled mage, but also knowledgeable of many other things, such as alchemy, allowed for a swift progression in the form of her marite-making dew, having be potent enough to subjugate the will of someone like the headmaster.


    Surprisingly enough, it really was One that enabled this entire n, she was able to get a hold of the head of both the Defilers Of The Holy and Ironic Puppeteers, luring them into a deal they were going to regret extensively.


    But there was a problem, those two groups had too few members to begin with, not nearly enough for any part of their n, thankfully, they also had a solution to this, employing the undead efficiency, One''s furnished plenty of subjects to turn into new puppeteers and defilers, the second one''s being the easiest as only a touch of the fire was enough to do so.


    Making plenty of meat shields that weren''t up to standards, but had the advantage of being very obedient, just a snap of the finger and their memories would be wiped.


    Despite being a rather subpar vampire, One was to be thanked greatly for their manoeuvreing into fruition, of course, the other two did not ck.


    Loimos had learnt and improved on many things, such as the further extent of having sapient limbs of himself around, although he could not pilot two whole bodies at once without having one be ineffective, he could switch between the two, each body recognised as its own being and allowing for highly constraining and destructive conditions and pacts to be put into usage free of charge.


    It was thanks to this, as well as Unacunerra carving runes and sigils directly into his bones, that he was able of fooling even the volcano witch with his disguise, taking upon rules that wentpletely against his very nature, at least, that''s how it was interpreted by whatever or whoever approved of conditions, vowing not to kill anymore livings certainly warranted a great deal in return, a vow he had somehow abused with a loophole even in his Osworth persona with the headmaster.


    Loimos had been in charge of turning the headmaster into a pawn and of taking care of Geter, though his greatest achievement was knowing people, serving as the bridge between the mage and vampire, even personally knowing The Death Dealer, Loimos was a well connected skeleton.


    As for Unacunerra, as mentioned before, he had aided both of his aplices, particrly in teaching Loimos to use his mana instead of his death force, and of course, stalling Rosemary, something neither of the other two could have done at all, one needed to fight zone with a zone.


    "Very well then, One, you are in charge of turning as many high members of Starkefolten into our pawns, I shall go over to Faraday and help undo the seal faster from the outside, then find Artencil to get him up to date, as for you Loimos, you will have the greatest mission of all" the skeleton mage brought his bony palms together.


    "It is up to you, to find our venerable lords and direct them back toward our eternal court, the court of Nitok, King Of The Dead, the mage that once brought forth an undying eclipse"

 Chapter 187 Trying And Failing

    "You mean the gravelords? Yeah, we have lots of archives on these guys, we have a monopoly on them in fact, what do you want to know?" an old man with a most exquisite moustache, a well-rested face and a charming smile spoke up, his voice echoing inside of the grand throne room.


    To his side, a young man was simply standing there.


    "Everything, but first, who am I addressing exactly?" the king and his little troop were standing in front of the projected bodies of the two men, their forms blinking in between transparency and opaqueness, the brightness shifting from time to time.


    ''Unbelievable¡­'' Bethome Meleme covered her face with one hand, it was only logical however.


    "Ah, my apologies, Ohith, of the underground tower, next to me is my disciple, Tholth, of the underground tower"


    "I am sorry, but our current leader is a little busy at the moment, but it is for the best, no one understands his mumbling and slurred speech" he chucked, turning to his disciple, whose projected image disappeared for a few moments as he walked away,ing back with a neatly organised stack of paper.


    The old mage cleared his throat, licking his finger to flip through a few pages.


    "Alright then, as far as we are aware, there were, or are, eight gravelords in total, we have really searched everywhere we could to find a trace of them, and there is only one that was ever sighted, and not even by us¡­"


    The undead researcher purposefully made them wait before he started speaking.


    ''Get on with it, the faster you are done here, the faster you can go back to phndering in the tomb!'' the historian was seething in the background, if only she could grab them by their twig-wide necks and just start shaking them.


    "Vwoldtnir!


    The Grand Ghoul, Sun Hater, or The Deep Crawler, we have reports concerning his rather unconventional bodily shape and choice of limbs, though, they are not very precise as to what that could mean, we have theorised that it was because he was part of the ''Ghoul Fodiens'' meaning that he would have arms in ce of legs" he twirled his moustache, passionately rting the discoveries of the underground tower, for once someone was curious about them, in a way that did not entail lighting a fire.


    "Although he is one of the more curious gravelords, his exploits were rather shy, copsing the very earth, many ravines and underground systems are attributed to his exploits, such as the famed Elephant Cave System, he still exists for certain, a death hunter spotted him not so long ago, a few years back"


    The king coughed.


    "There is one of those gravelords alive- I mean, still around, and no one thought a good idea to mention it?"


    The mages of the underground tower were one thing, they kept themselves secluded most of the time and werergely despised, but he had just said that it was a death hunter, the king had a good rtionship with them.


    "They defenders of life after all, they deemed that no one should even consider trying to do anything about it for it would too dangerous, our informants did not manage to make anyone cough up the location either, and then they found that he was from the underground tower and kicked his ass, but anyways, we barely started"


    He left the spotlight to his disciple for the next one, the two of them really treating this important meeting like a one in a life opportunity to show off.


    "K?rpersucher is only known to us as a name, we don''t even have a particr title attributed to them, their mention are few and far between, all only talking of them as a great menace without even knowing the power of this gravelord"


    "Multaemanus is in the exact same spot, only noted for particrly cruel acts of barbarism, did you feel it by the way? That feeling like someone just brushed their freezing fingers across your nape? That''s what happens when you mention this gravelord"


    Tholth quickly went over the two lords they had the least information about, basically, they were nothing more than names, in fact, there was very little to be known about any of the gravelords, anything that came close to being actual intel was nothing more than padding added by the two researchers and mere spections.


    The many vampire lords only had more information in the way of their special powers being named, and being known to have participated in battles no one knew anything about, how were they supposed to know how impressive it was that Drac wiped out an entire coalition, when the coalition''s size was unknown, the details of the battle were blurry at best, and when each member of said coalition were groups and nations that had been thrown to the oblivion of history?n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    It was best to say that they knew nothing about the forces of the undead, they knew with near certainty where their king was at least, but Starkefolten was not to be convinced easily, and they were already keeping a close eye on that crypt anyways, they would be offended that their might could be questioned by Agilulf Wanneck of all people, they did not have the strongest under their banner, but they had the strongest army.


    "Well, that was a big waste of time" Meleme shook her head, not even mad anymore, just disappointed.


    Even the corpse touchers knew nothing of the ancient undeads.


    "Calm now, perhaps these gentlemen know something about others¡­" the king leaned forward, the old man and his disciple still all smiles, to them, what they had just shared was tremendous.


    "What about the heroes of the past? Thanatok Ynig¨®s and Maiele Liameilos? Miss Meleme was able to find many things on them and their deeds, so perhaps, your own archives would have some more?


    Such as, their whereabouts?" it was wishful thinking, but at least The Elven Light could still be around, part of an illustrious species of elf said to be even above the high elves,bined with the mythical power she was said to wield, it wouldn''t be a stretch to think that her longevity could have taken her all the way to the present.


    The master student pair looked at one another, then back at the king, raising their shoulders.


    "Our apologies, we have indeed thought to try and find her, you know, to get her first hand ount, but not only are all records of her stop after the sealing of the undead king, she seems to be immune to divinations" they extended their excuses for not being able to help on this matter, flickering out of sight.


    "Well, this was useless"


    "Let''s take care of your citizenship and titles Miss Syklon, sorry for the wait"


    "I don''t mind, it was interesting considering that I ran into an undead myself not so long ago"


    "Excuse me?"

 Chapter 190 Icon Of Light

    The dark caravan drove through the peacefulnds, lush trees overflowing with ripe fruits, making for an endless source of food for many birds and other animals, no monsters had made their presence known just yet, but there had to be some of them, they were beings of nature as well after all. Find your next read on empire


    Wheels crushed the tall grasses, reducing pretty flowers to mush, the overflowing life the wilnds emitted could be suffocating to lower undeads, the domination of life in the current era showed in all its filthy glory, death was but a mere fuel to the life that would after here.


    Just a bit of miasma could tilt the fragile bnce life believed to be gospel, but it wouldn''t be conductive the greater goal to go after this ce already, Loimos simply went on his way, continuing his travel, his pace made to very slightly, just in case eyes were inspecting him and his carriage.


    Loimos did not encounter any of the local denizens, no signs of elves and the likes, no monsters either, the only sign of them he discovered was some sort of altar, a treerger than the rest, its leaves a soft pink, its bark and branches bright, dazzling like the sun, in fact, Loimos was incapable of telling the difference between this light let out by the tree and that of the sun, they were simply the exact same.


    Nestled amidst protruding roots, a rock had been carved out, allowing empty space inside, here, offerings, incenses, flowers and herbs alike had been gathered, in front of a small portrait, appearing like a very realistic piece of art, the artist''s own ir couldn''t be made out, the intent being to transpose the person''s looks as faithfully as possible.


    Loimos had stopped his caravan, stepping down to take a longer look at this portrait, obviously, to receive such honours, the woman depicted had to be quite illustrious, and indeed, one only needed to look to know that there was something of importance about her.


    A fair tone of skin, long and pointy ears, much longer than that of the elves one could meet on this continent, pink hair, the exact same tone as that of the very tree this image could be found, and her eyes, holding the exact same glow as the very sun, the artist had clearly gone above and beyond to represent this as well as was possible, this piece seemingly left untouched by the passage of time.


    The elf''s hair was somewhat slicked back, showing her forehead in full, the end of her hair subtly wavy, only her face and shoulders were represented on this icon, but what had been drawn had been done without mistake.


    With such singr characteristics, failing to recognise this figure could only mean that one had no clue about her existence, Loimos turned his body to the side, a distance away from the bright tree, a new one had just appeared.


    "Gorgeous, isn''t she? Surely, even an empty and meaningless being such as yourself could recognise and appreciate her looks" The First Seed once again appeared before Loimos, erupting with a constant of life force, which potency had yet to have been topped by anything Loimos had bore witness to, not even close.


    Looking at the undead for a moment, the sapient tree scoffed,ughed a bit, its wood creaking violently as it shook from side to side.


    "I am giving you too much credit, nothing can move you, not even Maiele''s beauty" the old tree sounded genuinely disappointed by Loimos''sck of reaction.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Are you not going to attack? We are both well aware that you have the necessary firepower to do so" the undead paid no heed to the tree''s odd fixation on the elven heroine, inquiring about it.


    The First Seed was clearly an ancient being, the way he talked and spoke of The Elven Light only confirming that he should have been around for the advent of the old war, yet, none that Loimos encountered had known of such a being.


    It was only natural to question it now that the nt decided to show up on its own.


    "Oh, you have no idea, no idea! Just how much I would like to st you apart, I can''t believe I missed my only shot at it, the life I hold, is not to be squandered undead¡­"


    "Here, we stand near a tree grown from blood drawn of Maiele Liameilos, shed in a vicious battle against the twin gravelords, from which no victor would be decided, the vampires forced to run away, tails in between their legs, once The Elven Light''s true sun rose, no vampires could stand in her way" the tree changed subject back to the elf again, clearly more interested in telling a corpse about her history than anything else.


    Loimos remained silent for a few instants, analysing The First Seed, its expression was rather hard to decipher.


    "You make it sound like a threat, am I to believe that she has yet to pass?"


    "Oh, who knows Loimos, who knows, I am merely here to watch over you, I am never far behind you know, but I emerged today so that you may not touch this tree, it is ridiculous, but I value it, touch it, and I shall not hesitate to waste the precious life I hold to erase you for good"


    Its face protruding out from the bark contorted, truly meaning it.


    The skeleton wasn''t nning on it anyways, climbing back onto his caravan, not stopping for thest words addressed to him, no matter how ominous they may be.


    "Go Loimos, go and gather them all, help the dead back to their peak, we will be here, waiting for you, may we meet again" The First Seed disappeared into the ground, its overwhelming life signature vanishing utterly.


    Loimos would be waiting for them as well, with the gravelords and king back together, none shall stop death, all life will eventually sumb to its call, this time, all of it shall fall at once.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 192 Hide And Seek

    The freezing dragon roared in direction of where the old tree had stood, presumably conveying something unfriendly to him considering the first action it had taken, only then did it turn to Loimos, the beast and undead staring at one another, the winged one moving it to the side, inspecting the skeleton intently.


    Recognising him from back then, tilting its head, puffing cold fog from its nostrils, looking off into the distance and back at the undead, reaching a swift understanding as to what he was up to, roaring, the cold intensified brutally, the sound of its mighty vocalisation carrying a deadly frost along with it.


    The two horses pulling Loimos around went stiff, pulled into the caravan by nasty tentacles of decay along side the undead himself, his transport,pressing into a smaller size, growing bony legs, some sort of sphere, their sudden appearance pushing itself off the ground, effectively avoiding the one-hit KO that was this roar.


    Natural arts used by beasts and monsters were certainly potent for no apparent reason, this guy right there could effectively put Loimos out ofmission by just screaming at him, not even hard.


    Of course, the skeleton could just pop back out somewhere else but that was beside the point, he had no way of resisting the frost in any meaningful way, and the dragon hadn''t even begun to pull out its various tricks, the dragon and their kins, this one looking more like a wyvern, were famous for their breath attacks.


    The gentlebeast pping its wings with enough force to st a few houses off their foundations behind was unlikely to be of the fiery variety, it took off into the sky, disappearing behind the high clouds.


    Reappearing as quickly as it vanished, paws first, precisely crashing were the rot construct had stood moments ago, but it was not bound to moving in a single way, this little piece of putrid crafting was Loimos''s magnum opus at the moment, not only was it about the best thing he could make, he had taken a long time to put together, putting multiple careful creations together as well as customising the entire thing using his knowledge of conditions, it was not something that could be redone on a whim.


    Rushing back onto a precipitous road close to the edge, Loimos almost went running off the mountain on multiple asions, technically functioning like an extension of himself, and thus an undead, the caravan could control its movements with precision that surpassed the surgical, but the speed they were going at meant that the ground they scuttered upon could give break at any moment.


    There was the dragon pursuing them too, although it must not have been trying that hard just yet, simply sending gusts of wind at him with its wings from time to time, seeming content with mostly observing for now.


    In spite of its bestial disposition, Loimos was under the impression that this dragon was smarter than it appeared, from its reaction toward The First Seed to this, but the skeleton was certain, this dragon was alive, in possession of life force, it was not under the domination of Drac, Son Of Dragon.


    Inaction was a mistake, the caravan was a construct that was already finalised and perfectly stable, controlling it was just like moving a finger, meaning that he could devote his attention to another task entirely, the carriage, now looking more like a tick from the depth of nightmares, opened up, releasing a slew of rotten crows.


    Truly more like a swarm than a flock, tightly packed together in a way no living avian would even attempt, this dark wave of feathers and decaying juices came crashing into the dragon, not even budging it but certainly covering its sight.


    Forcing the creature to halt it flight and assume a stationary position, repeatedly swinging its wings to rid itself of the annoying pest, half a dozen of such movements needed to get rid of all the waves of birds, they were so frail, the crows wouldn''t havested a minute even without outside interference.


    Loimos had ran off, unseen even further down on the road, the area now squirming with putrefied birds, knowing that the undead could not have gone that far in so little time, it searched around, sweeping at empty space and such, having knowledge of many ways one could conceal themselves. Read exclusive content at empire


    But somehow, not even the caravan could be found even after half an hour, true to its nature, the dragon kept cool, puffing frost to signify its slight annoyance, but honestly left stumped, it allowed Loimos to run away from its clutches once again, respecting the talent needed to find such a good hiding spot in so little time.


    Let he be allowed to venture deeper, the inner section of the mountains was a part it hardly visited anyways, fearing to end up as another corpse impaled down into the chasm, the dragon was lord of the territory only by matter of circumstances, there were no true territorial instincts, simply feeding on the residents when hungry and stomping on outsiders to pass time.


    "My old friend, I''m no longer young enough to care about all of this" uttering actual words, hoping that the person they were aimed at could actually hear them.


    Flying back to where it hade from, the dragon did not even try to trick Loimos and make a sudden turn, really just leaving, though, Loimos still only emerged from hiding spot only an hourter, small pieces of rocks moving out from the side of the road, pushed out as various bones stashed up inside the thin spaces slipped out, the hollow spots where he had hidden parts of himself were much too small to be suspicious.


    As for the caravan, it was currentlypressed into a ball, fitting perfectly well in his palm, reassembling himself properly, as well as bringing the carriage back into a more suitable state took a few more hours, thetter being the culprit for this time span.


    Loimos did not bother to bring out the two horses out for now, currently reduced to the sizes of mere toys, those two were not rot creations of Loimos, but specialised golems finely put together by Unacunerra, inanimate objects were easy enough to conceal as the real deal, when it came to beings of rot, not so simple.


    And since driving around without horses or anything to pull you was a little bit too noticeable, the earthen mage had taken care of this aspect, the golems created from hispressed earth magic, ensuring their durability, also allowing them to be minimised.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Now that the dragon was out of the way, things should go smoothly.

 Chapter 197 The Elusive Gravelords

    "That is good to hear, your strategic mind has been the object of countless praises, Unacunerra was certain that you would be able of taking the city with only yourself and your troops"


    "The Earthen Disaster is still amongst us? That is a relief, who else have you partnered up with Loimos?"


    "I first encountered Faraday, apanied by Slotriig, both are still currently in the seal Faraday found himself in, my efforts have proven enough to weaken the seal from the outside and inside by helping Faraday recover some of his strength, Unacunerra will soon get to them and destroy it for good, experience and analysis of a divine seal should aid us in liberating our king as swiftly as possible" Loimos had rarely spoken so much, but the time required to be specific and precise, something that more words could easily solve.


    "I then met with Irmandos, unfortunately, a life infused tool was stabbed deep into his flesh, his death force was eradicated"


    "Artencil had found himself at odds with one that lives in death, I was able of dispatching the traitor, the king''s schr went on by himself to gather troops on his own, Unacunerra is also working to contact him, apart from them, I have also met with One, a young sunwalking vampire, having form her own organisation andwork of contacts, she is currently working to ce spies amidst the leadership of Starkefolten, we sessfully ced a great deal of attention on separate groups to allow for more discretion in our actions" Loimos spoke with the same tone all the way through, sitting in his chair as if petrified by the gaze of a basilisk.


    The gravelord smiled, taking a sip of blood.


    "That is beyond my expectations to be honest, I assume you came here first for I am the only gravelord whose position you could even begin to guess?


    Well, our order of retreat was given to us by the undead king, wanting his forces to not be diminished when he would eventually break his seal, our king was always confident that he would make his return, even in the instant he was defeated, as such, I should be able to give you directions as to where each of my fellows decided to take hiding"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    He stood up, his cape fluttering elegantly as he approached a cab, pulling a antique map, spreading its immense width over another table than the one he had been sitting at with Loimos.


    The map taking up the entirety of the table, he brought his finger down.


    "This is where we are, the Ashen Grounds, still surrounded by the mountains, although, I suppose most of the other areas described on this map have seen some significant changes, here, is this ce still filled with holes?"


    "It is still called Gruyere ins" Loimos responded, walking up to the other side of the table.


    "Well, that is Vwoldtnir''s favourite spot, it used to be an area under no clear jurisdiction before it became part of our empire, but if it is still as treacherous as it used to be, no one sane would have dared to try and establish home there, even I have almost fallen into those pits on multiple asion, holes dug out by Vwoldtnir are exceptionally hard to sense ahead of time, so do be careful, he also tends tomunicate by grinding teeth inside of his torso, he uses it to give orders to his subordinates, his hearing is thus exceptionally sharp, if you manage to get to the Gruyere ins, getting in touch with him will as simple as calling out his name in death tongue into any of the holes there" Drac rubbed his chin, stabbing a small spike that definitely appeared from thin air, into the map.


    Although it sounded simple, these ins where to be found inside of the Theocracy of Millipolo, faith was of the utmost importance here, to the point that it was used as a way to approve entries anywhere in the country, literally measuring one''s faith to ensure that they were not of heresy.


    Millipolo allowed worship of all that is divine, so not matter what god one worshipped, even if the god''s divinity was of rather poor tastes, you could be allowed in, unfortunately, Loimos''s faith would most certainlye out as null no matter what they asked him about, the undead legion was not affiliated with any god either, the gods of the dead, of death and all that rted promoted death as a cycle of life, which was no good.


    He would surely find a way, perhaps finding someone that could apany him¡­


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    "K?rpersucher and Multaemanus, it is impossible to tell, ghost and spectre respectively, they can go unnoticed pretty much anywhere, and considering how they are, they probably don''t stand around either, if you hear of any possessions or sudden mass hysterias, you might want to investigate, it''s their trademark" the gravelord chuckled, thinking about his oldpanions still doing the exact same things even millenniums after.


    "As for my fellow vampire lords, the twins, Vespertillo and Atsalinopalo, whether they will stick together or not is uncertain, Vespertillo is the lord of beasts, his blood has the properties of easily turning animals and monsters into vampires, is this ce still overgrown with jungles?"


    "Dschungend is reputed for its lush environments, I have heard that it things grow faster than they can cut here, the ce has most certainly not changed much, in fact, it has grown bigger than shown on this map" the map being very detailed and coherent in the way it represented sizes, was able of approximately showing how muchrger it had be.


    Snapping his fingers, Drac could only affirm that this is where The Night Flier had chosen to hide away, as for his brother, Atsalinopalo, the gravelord wasn''t able to point at any area The Shattered would have chosen over the other.


    Lastly, there was Nosferatu, Of The Foetid Blood.


    "Hisbyrinth of a tomb used to be right here, he told me that he would retreat with all of his loyal vampires, that all others of his blood that would roam away from here would be those that live in death, knowing him, he probably entered a state of dormancy, you''ll have to jolt him awake"


    There was a slight problem about the ce Drac was pointing at however, the area hadpletely changed, there was a mountain andkes all over the ce here now.


    But, in terms of distance to cover, Nosferatu was the closest gravelord to his current position, although, talking of closeness over such long distances seemed a bit off the mark.

 Chapter 198 Properties Of Lord Blood

    "This here is my little fort, where I was originally nning of settling down upon our victory against the living, growing blood fruits for all my fellow vampires to enjoy and feast upon, since blood would eventually be a rare resource when all life was eradicated, or so some believed, as such, I went ahead and came up with this way of growing blood endlessly, quite handy, nt these everywhere and you''reughing" Drac and Loimos stood on the highest balcony of this unnamed castle, the gravelord seemingly content with acting as a tour guide.


    Pointing at specific corpses turned trees, telling the skeleton about the particr history of the more interesting ones.


    "You know, making something into a vampire can prove a fair bit difficult for the majority of us, even gravelords, the stronger the being, the harder it is if they are not willing, and they rarely are in spite of the many advantages, all afraid of a little bit of biting and scratching¡­"


    "Vespertillo and Atsalinopalo have it easier, one focuses on turning beasts into vampires, and most willply if beaten over the head enough, the other, well, Atsalinopalo is a weird one, I don''t quite get it, but he can turn artificial life into vampires, by that, I mean golems, automatons or pure spirits, not actual imitations of life, he only found this out after getting seriously messed up by Ynig¨®s and requiring some get some spare parts, but I digress"


    The gravelord gestured toward a group of vampires, all of Nosferatu''s blood.


    "See those guys with the ugly mugs? Nosferatu really imprints his face on his descendants, be they man or woman, can you seriously believe that this guy was originally a member of some greater elves before undeath?


    But enough insulting him, he has the most unstable blood of all of us, its special properties often prove too chaotic for those he is trying to turn to actually manage it, most of his subordinates fail topletely limate too¡­"


    He waved at the vampires, all wholly unaware that the handsome gravelord had just thrown dirt to their entire kind.


    "... But it has the advantage of not being limited to any species and such, me and the twins have ease turning specific beings, I can manage human and other simr species myself, but I still find it simpler to do so with dragons and all that rtes, Nosferatu had unstable transformations across the board, but he can seed with any sort"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Loimos listened to the gravelord''s endless talking, even if some of what was being said was not very useful, the skeleton knew to not interrupt a lord, also, he had since long realised that amongst the undead, he was more of an exception than the rule.


    Many of the sapient undead had personalities and emotions, it was something that was shared with life, just that the lesser undeads simplycked them entirely, so Drac just wanting to speak with someone new was naught but natural, and should thus be allowed.


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    "What about Sun-Walker?"


    "Ah, Sun-Walker, I am not aware of much about him, he only ever turned one person into a vampire and no other, his unwillingness to spread his legacy and extend his number of subordinates should have been a sign for us to be wary off, we were too convinced that one chosen by death as a gravelord could not turn their back on us, the full extent of his vampiric blood will most likely never be unfurled" Drac almost seemed despondent.


    The two undeads walked around the castles, the vampire lord speaking in detail about his fellow lords, of the undead court, and of course, the undead king, Nitok.


    Up until they found themselves outside of the castle, facing the two mighty dragons guarding the fortress.


    "It is a sad state of affairs, but those two are all that remains of my famed dragons, nor are they the mightiest my flock had to offer, during the great war, all life and all death converged against one another, an epic melee of impossible proportions, gods and divinites were felled, heroes and champions arose and fell like leaves throughout the year, the legendary species such as giants and dragons joined the fight early on, proving difficult opponents to face alongside the numerous kingdoms and empires"


    He turned to a dragon of titanic proportions skewered on a spike.


    "Of course, me and my ability to make dragons into vampires called for it to be my duty to deal with the airborne threats, countless shes ensued, the numbers of dragons on both sides slowly dwindling, the strongest were killed and destroyed, leaving only the lesser ones, though, that frost dragon you mention sounded rather interesting¡­"


    Drac turned to Loimos.


    "But enough monologuing, you have been given a much difficult task, and it would be a shame for you to do nothing but ry a message, take my hand" this was literal, the gravelord casually detached his limb, giving it to the skeleton, pouring a hefty amount of blood with it, not a single drop missing its destination.


    "If that primeval rot you mentioned works like I understood, that should give you a nice boost, that is but the tip of the iceberg however, I would wager that your special ability and impressive death force means that nothing is truly entirely out of reach for you"


    "I shall impart upon you my knowledge and signature blood technique, none of my fellow vampire lords are as diligent and refined with their blood maniption as I" as he once again, not so subtly, took a jab at hispatriots, a spike exactly like those impaling the many corpses around appeared right in between him and the skeleton.


    "To put it simply, I impale, the spikes interact with the blood of the victim, first sending a bit of my blood into theirs, if they ept it, they are turned, if they don''t, the sudden injection will go haywire, making them go into a state of shock, then, the spike will drain all of their blood, distinguishing between the victim''s and my own, ensuring that my vampiric blood never leaves their veins during the process, generally, I stab them about a dozen times at minimum at the same time, preferably in ces where it hurts especially much"


    "Mmh, my bad, I was expecting some sort of reaction, forgot who I was talking to for a second, but anyways, to learn this technique which allows to attacks from great distances, and makes the very soil your yground, one must first learn to solidify blood, although, that might not be necessary for you¡­"


    And thus, Loimos began learning from Drac, Son Of Dragon, the vampire whose kin was the most widespread.

 Chapter 200 Youth And Heat

    "This is where the defiler''s took off into the seas a few days ago, or so I have heard, the people that we thrown around by them were touched by the fire and are no good to ask about it right now" speaking sternly, Pierre-Orn¨¦e stood in front of the three unwanted presences, the name otherworlders were referred to as.


    They had managed to get a good lead on the movements of the heretic leader, but unfortunately, diplomacy meant that Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e, said to be amongst the strongest this continent had to offer, tightly affiliated with a king, he couldn''t just walk around other nations without warning them about his arrival, that would be problematic.


    The entire process had gotten the four of them a bitte, allowing the defilers to take off onto the ocean.


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    "Well, there is nothing that we can do about it then¡­" William, the blond unwanted gifted with a great affinity with light magic, expressed his thoughts, at this point, they might as well head back and start dealing with the defiler''s still popping around instead.


    Toby, the unwanted given the very rare present of a system with special functions, his system was actually no different than the rest, the system was singr, but this boy had been granted ess to capabilities usually wholly barred from the rest of the poption.


    Namely, the ability to gaze into the status of others, as long as they weren''t too much stronger than himself, so at the moment, it was not very useful.


    The real boon was the simple ess to system skills and other assets, this particr otherworlder was a bit busy on sightseeing at the moment.


    "I mean, we could take another boat, could we not?" Ilona, sole girl of the trio remarked, pointing at a great vessel just waiting to be taken through dangers of the deep ocean, she herself had been taken to this world and given an affinity for the four most basic elements, fire, wind, earth and water, having many affinities might sound good, but it only meant that she had much more to learn and the study of magic and mana for someoneing from a worldpletelycking in it was a rather steep hurdle to ovee.


    She had to learn from scratch, lower than a denizen of this world, which was why both her and William were barely able to use their magic at the moment.


    They had instead been trained in the mastery of weapon wielding by Pierre-Orn¨¦e, although, only Ilona had taken up a halberd, Toby preferring to carry a bow and arrows, whilst William instead went with the ssic sword, having already had a bit of experience with it in his old world.


    "Oh hell no! The ocean was already making me piss myself in fright when there was nothing but animals in it, I am not getting close to the version with actual monsters in it, how am I supposed to fight the kraken and other slimy tentacle monsters with a sword?" the blond boy made an X sign with his arms, already paling at the thought.


    "Come on man, with Mister Pierre-Orn¨¦e around, there is nothing to worry about"


    The three of them hadn''t had much time to grow stronger, their physiques was of a different world, lesser than that of the denizens, their foundation was weaker to begin with, so the halbardier had focused on improving their bodies and getting limated to the different, energy rich environment of this world, as well as making use of the system and its XP and stats to get a little boost to their strength, he would have liked to get them to learn some battle arts under Lady Syklon, but the timing of their mission didn''t allow for it yet.


    Pierre-Orn¨¦e''s way of achieving his overwhelming strength was not exactly rmended to beginners like them either, they could only keep on training, learning and earning experience, both literal and figurative.


    "Toby! Back me up over here- What are you looking at? Oh" the two boys were focused on something far away.


    Ilona walked up to see what could get their attention so greatly, nodding her head, indeed, it was a rather nice view.


    Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e shook his head, tapping his halberd onto the ground to get them to stop staring at the fourdies on the beach.


    "Ah, sorry sir, It''s just that I spotted the tomboy gf I''ve always dreamed of-"


    "I don''t understand anything you''re saying to me William, if you three are so interested, go and ask them if they were there when the boat was taken, I would like to know the rough direction they were headed in, even if I already have an idea¡­" shooing his three proteges toward the admittedly very beautiful women, but they were too young for him.


    The otherworlders looked at each other.


    "Mister Pierre-Orn¨¦e is a cruel teacher, I can''t talk to pretty women¡­" Toby felt even more stressed than when he was unsuspectedly warped into a fantasy world whilst vacuuming his room, as a young man that spent most of his education learning from behind aputer screen, his social skills were rathercking.


    "I feel like I should be offended by that" Ilona raised an eyebrow at that remark, looking over at William, who wasn''t faring much better, mumbling about tanned abs.


    Her two friendly associates were utterly worthless in this particr battle, she was not much morepetent in this sort of social interaction, but she had more balls, figuratively speaking.


    And so, Ilona stepped up in their stead, and walked up to the one with the most prominent mammary growths.


    "Excuse me, would you happen to have been around when a ship was stolen here, a few days ago?"


    The woman looked up from what she had been doing, which was endlessly shining a green-ded katana like it was the most precious thing in the world.


    She looked over at her three friends before responding.


    "Yeah, what is it about?" she hugged her sword.


    "What direction did they take, a-approximately?" Ilona stuttered a bit, a bit mesmerised by the sight of the thick de getting in between the two great mounds, the otherworlders eyes visibly dting.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Receiving her answer, Ilona quickly bid her farewell and retreated before she got any redder than she currently was.


    ''Oof, that took restraint to not say anything out of line¡­''

 Chapter 201 Crime Scene

    In a town like many others, it''s true identity and location impossible to tell from architecture or environment, many guards dressed in armours beaten down from being passed generations upon generations, none of the damage being from actualbat or proper usage of the protective gear, they all looked rather tense, shifting ufortably as they surrounded all entrances and exits of the local tavern.


    It was early morning still, the entrance had not been locked when thest patrons leftte the night before, and the early birds that hade to get themselves drunk first thing first had been greeted with a most sobering sight, leading them to empty their bowels, run away, or do both at the same time, tripping over their own inept feet.


    The captain of the guards was inside the tavern, staying a good distance away from the sorry remains of the tavern owner, his entire body appearing like it was deted, pale as hey sprawled over the counter, the very spot where he had most certainly met his harrowing ends.


    Even with all the vitality from his face gone, the expression of pure terror could not be washed away, murders were already rare enough in this peaceful little town, but something like this was unheard of, the captain had no idea what to do about it, how to gather evidences and such, he was afraid of even approaching the body.


    Thankfully for him, his job was going to be made a whole lot simpler, as a hero burst through the door, uncaring for the guards telling her that this was a crime scene, there was nothing they could do to stop her, their weak arms incapable of stopping her thin frame.


    Her brown mantle fluttering in the wind as she held onto her hat, her blonde curly hair serving as a stark contrast to her clothes, pink eyes seemingly glowing under the shadows, she smiled at the captain as she walked up to him, boots striking against the wooden floorboards, extending her hand to him.


    He agreed to the handshake without thinking, asking his men to calm down.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    ''What the hell is this iron grip? Is that¡­''


    Putting it together, he realised what he was faced with.


    "I am Rummy, you can call me Rum-Rum if you like, you handsome man, I am a death hunter, vampire hunter to be precise, this is not the first victim that was sucked dry in the surrounding areas" leaning closer to the middle-aged captain, she whispered a few more words.


    "You could be the next one if you''d like¡­"


    He shivered, like his bare body was submerged entirely in freezing waters, he was feeling a level of ufortableness he did not believe to be possible until today.


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    "My hunting instincts were right, the exact same modus operandi, it''s the fancy way of saying the method of murder, would you look at this, the victim was punctured on both sides of the neck, you need a rather big jaw to do this, he was drained of all his blood in mere moments, no chance to fight back"


    "Is it really a vampire then? Aren''t there only the ones that burn in the sun and those that don''t?" the captain scratched the back of his neck, fairly certain that vampires were just people with some fangs and blood tricks.


    "Oh, you ignorant, adorable man, you and your musk from wearing that armour all day long are alluring, but it is no excuse to not have knowledge! There a many more castes of vampires than you think"


    "Each with their specificities and habits, let''s take a look at the entire tavern grounds" putting her hand up against the captain''s chestte, she brought him alongside her as they stepped back to get a more ample look.


    Clicking on her odd sses, the man could have sworn her pink eyes actually glowed brightly for a second.


    "I''d guess that the owner was attacked right as he tried to step outside of his tavern, the vampire probably simply walked him down, the victim absolutely terrified by the sight that beheld him, he was incapable of forming a coherent response to the fright and slowly back away, stumbling against that table over there, knocking that chair down in his fall" she began reciting the way the attack apparently went down.


    "See the rips on his cor? The vampire grabbed him and pinned him on the counter, where it sank its teeth into the man''s neck, as you can guess, that particr vampire must have had some rather developed ws on top of the aforementionedrge maw" rubbing her hands together, she took out a small notebook, in which one needed to write exceptionally small in.


    "It could be one of those nosferatus, but I think it is most likely to be a bat-faced one, that''s a bit worrying actually, they are super rare, and I have been told that they have the habit of devouring their victims whole, down to their hair, bones and even clothes¡­ Mmh"


    Scratching her chin with one finger, she found herself doubting the veracity of her thoughts, a bat-faced vampire had not been spotted in such a long time, Latir-e-se''s short encounter with Vwoldtnir was more recent than a trace of those particr bloodsuckers.


    ''What could make one appear and not bother with the usual devouring? Is something riling them up or something?'' being wholly taken up by the thrill of the hunt and search for answers, Rummy forgo her usual teasing of older men, taking off without saying anything else.


    Once she got a good distance away from the small town, she grasped onto a small artefact hanging from her neck, her saying that this was yet another simr murder in the area was a bald-faced lie, just meant to put the captain at ease, everything was much less worrying when you weren''t the sole victim of it after all.


    "Abraham, ¨¦chs, I have a rather curious case on my hands, I am not certain whether a bat is to be med or if this is some borate hoax, are the night hunters still yelling at empty space about the winged vampires or not?" she spoke into the device, not having to wait long to get an answer.


    "The night hunters said they had gotten a lead, none have made a reappearance since, and you know them, they didn''tmunicate where they were headed, they must have stumbled upon more than they could chew" ¨¦chs responded first, the night hunters referring to those that had gotten obsessed with winged vampires, records of such vampires either didn''t exist or we''re all destroyed, so they all just looked like a bunch of lunatics.


    "Actually, I was going to contact you ¨¦chs, I think I found something of interest, I am having younglings secure the perimeter, but I have discovered an old building of some sort, half-way submerged in waters infested with flesh-eating fishes and overgrown in roots, in that jungle-like danger zone"


    "I can feel it, I am getting close!"

 Chapter 202 Remedy, Hope

    "I don''t want to sound like I am proiming defeat or failure already, but that ce is hardly manoeuvrable at all"


    "Oh please, it''s just a bit of water and man-eating swarms of monsters, we have seen worse! Or is the younger generation getting cold feet at the thought of getting wet?


    I can feel it in the depth of my soul and flesh, this ce, it must have something to do with him, his filthy blood- Only the blood of the original can possibly be used to discover a remedy!" Abraham took hold of ¨¦chs, shaking him.


    "I can not allow this opportunity to fly by, this ruin¡­ I didn''t tell you but it''s showing signs of sinking deeper, the water is only as high as our waist right now, but if we wait too long, we''ll have to learn to hold our breath for a while to hope to get anywhere, ¨¦chs, listen to me, we just need the regr repellent to get rid of those fishes, we can delve into this ce easily-"


    ¨¦chs removed the hands of the older vampire hunter from his cor, sighing, knowing that there was no dissuading the old man, he would go in, alone if needed, and even if unofficial, ¨¦chs was regarded as the leader of the vampire hunters, most legendary caste of the death hunters.


    Abraham was the oldest of their ranks, an illustrious figure many looked up to, few knew of why he was a hunter to begin with, of his obsession with the vampire of foetid blood, forefather of the nosferatus.


    "And what are you going to do if you find him inside of here? We act as a group, because alone we are incapable of putting a dent into their undying ranks, you''ll just die without aplishing anything"


    "Are we supposed to make ourselves small in front of them? Are we going to bow our heads to our undead overlords?! Don''t give me this bullshit ¨¦chs, you and I, both of us are fighting for the same reasons! Those bastards encroach upon us, spreading their vile blood wherever they see fit!


    Infecting our brothers and sisters, parents and loved ones, dooming them to a life in darkness, they were not meant to be eternal undeads, their minds can not handle the endlessness and feelessness-"


    "Of course, obviously we aren''t going to allow them to terrorise us, but you are not getting anywhere closer to this ruin Abraham, and those that will, will not engage into any sort ofbat, this a scouting mission, nothing else, at the smallest sign of any danger, retreat will be immediate, and especially if the one of the foetid blood appears in person, am I making myself clear?" he raised his voice, directing it at other death hunters that had been listening on their conversation not so subtly.


    "Only the swiftest and most adept at sensing danger will go in"


    ¨¦chs looked at the sinking construct, an old monument of the past that seemed to have emerged from the depth not so long ago, as if inviting them in, as though it was an old beast rising up from its sleep to feast before returning to its slumber.


    "No one here is faster and more perceptive than I am" Abraham spoke, hands on his knees as he sat on fallen log, the vampire hunters had erected a camp all around the perimeter of the ruins, many of them were already throwing objects into the water, others fastening it to the side of the ruins.


    "We both know well that if the price for a cure to vampirism was sting your own head off, you would do it without any hesitation, again, you are not getting in here, and once the scouts retreat, whether we got any good intel or not, we are blowing this thing to pieces with life bombs, Rummy improved the previous design, I don''t have a single clue what the lords of the dead are like, but it should at least tickle even that" he gestured toward the various round objects being thrown and tied about.


    The sheer quantity of them was enough to make anyone nervous, even if he called them life bombs, they were very much explosives still, the second word of their names did not stop them from sting someone to red bits of flesh.


    From what they had gathered, the visible part of the monument was but a minuscule part of the entire thing, evenrger than the majority, if not all pces and castles of today''s royalty, the purpose of this edifice was unknown, but it could not be good.


    "By the way, where is Rummy? Was she noting as well?" Abraham shook his head, questioning the absence of his student of sorts, she was not the sort to miss the oing fireworks, in fact, she was not the sort to want to miss anything rting to old undead ruins.


    "She has found her own leads, she seems convinced that there is something great to be discovered about the bat-faced vampires,e and help me gather the best team we can, I''ll lead it myself-"


    "Sir ¨¦chs, no need to involve yourself physically, this is too dangerous to risk our leader" another hunter expressed without having to think.


    Their leader wanted to retort, but looking around at his fellows, it was clear that all agreed with this line of thinking.


    In this case, ¨¦chs would simply make use of his innate ability to guide the few that would venture into the unknown dark dampness of this ancient structure.


    These men and women all had names, all vampire hunters knew one another personally, they were friends and even more, ¨¦chs was going to send them all into potentially deadly deepness, they knew this, but did not show fear.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "If all of you feel in your best condition, I would say to get over with it as quickly as possible"


    Dousing themselves in hefty amounts of repellent, the same substance preemptively dumped into the water as well to make sure the annoying swarms wouldn''t start nibbling on the vampire hunters, they stepped inside, the water reaching up to their waists.


    With his ability active, ¨¦chs was able of having an overview of the scouts even as they went well outside of his direct line of sight, even capable ofmunicating with them in their minds.


    "Say, was that thing there the whole time?" Abraham spoke aloud pointing at the object of his wonder, the other hunters following the direction his finger aimed at, all raising eyebrows and growing suspicious as they too, hadn''t noticed this very odd thing. Continue reading stories on empire


    "What are you talking about?" ¨¦chs stopped his ability for a moment, having the same reaction as everyone else.

 Chapter 204 Stone Coffin

    "Which direction did it take?" asked someone, the five scouts retreating from the ever-expanding rot abomination, none of them had noticed the slippery undead that went right past them.


    "It went in a straight line" responded ¨¦chs, the dark figure he had spotted having disappeared into the darkness further away, it went without saying that the interior of the sunken monument was suffused with nothing but darkness, the undead required no light to see, pure darkness was their preferred environment, where they could also make full use of their special sixth sense, darkness awareness.


    The death hunters of course carried sources of light,nterns and torches created with special means, both items carried by them having been sourced from now gone special castes of knights that proudly carried such tools.


    ¨¦chs hadn''t gotten a good look at the intruder, the first time having gotten past him with neck-breaking speed, the second time, through his ability, as though knowing that he was watching over his subordinates, it had hung its head low, resembling nothing but a shapeless mass of darkness, reminiscent of a certain mass murderer in that aspect.


    Moving around like a blood frenzied beast without making the slightest of noises, coupled with its maniption of rot, rotten blood as well as the rare burning blood in spite of clearly not being a vampire, he worried for the well being of his scouts, the five of them together should be capable of pinning and defeating rather sturdy undeads.


    The death hunters, unlike their founder, fought as groups, closing the gap in between them and the vile undeads using overwhelming numbers and underhanded tactics, those that could go toe to toe with proper undeads were in the minority.


    Hurried footsteps echoed loudly throughout the unimaginable expanse of the underground tomb, coffins had yet to slide open, the creatures dormant here were deep in slumber, it would take more than the ruckus of five living to rouse them from this state.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    This was to the advantage of the vampire hunters, clearly, this tomb was no simple one, the sheer architecture and numbers of coffins indicated this fact, the dead waiting here had to not be the bottom of the barrels as well, and even if they were, so many was not something they could hope to handle.


    But they only needed to catch up to the rot maniptor, and put this undead down, their speed and endurance was the main reason they were the ones down here, their equipment was made to enhance this aspect.


    By channelling the power of ''Life, Grant Me Strength'', they soon managed to sense something moving ahead of them, it was still far away, and clearly, this undead was fast and knew exactly how to take advantage of its traits, sprinting at maximum speed without wasting any of its movements.


    It was unclear whether this was truly the fastest it could go, or if it had forgone the usage of energy and such to be less noticeable, all that mattered was that the five scouts were not going to catch up by just running, and if they got too close, were noticed, a counterattack would certainly ensue.


    Allowing this corpse to exert its rot again would spell their failure, tired and exposed, the undead would never allow them to even get nearly as close as they currently were.


    Without having to speak, one of them brought out arge crossbow, the special weapon unfurling itself, already loaded with a bolt, each of the hunters of the dead used the life art empowering their movements on this one bolt.


    One might be wondering, how could they feel so certain that the undead had yet to notice their approach, they were loud, using life force and not so far behind.


    The answer was simple, two of the hunters were casting a simple spell concealing them, the greatest advantage of a hunter, was the element of surprise, getting the drop on an unsuspecting prey, by only dedicating their life to the destruction of death, they were especially proficient at fooling the senses of the abominable enemies of life.


    As such, that bolt, would hit its mark, even as the target reacted to the attack, suddenly spinning around, raising both arms, crossing them as ayer of bone formed, blocking thebined might of the five hunters, but being so deeply infused with the bane of the undead, the defences mattered little.


    The heavy bolt went right through with little resistance, sting the bone formation to shards, ripping the dead''s two forearms off and inserting itself into its chest, sending the corpse flying back.


    "Did it grab onto it?" one wondered, the bolt supposed to tear right through.


    Instead, their enemy had somehow seen an asion to propel further away from them, using this unfortunate attack as an asion to leave its pursuers in the dust.


    The five did not give up however, by choosing to keep the bolt stuck inside of its body, the undead had also held onto the life force, they had a chance to catch up now that life was infesting their target. Your journey continues at empire


    "Don''t forget, be cautious" ¨¦chs reminded them, his words halted as the bolt that had been shots mere moments ago was thrown right back at them, infused with death instead, its surface already falling apart and rusted, rather than like a javelin, the undead spun it around to have it cover as much surface area as possible, forcing each of the hunters to jump away, hugging the ground.


    Expecting a follow-up, they readied themselves, it did note, only the sound of heavy door dragging against the ground reaching them, stone on stone, scraping filling their ears, hurting them like the cries of a banshee in the distance.


    Having a bad feeling, their leader tried to tell to turn back right this instant, but as they took a few steps forward, as the door opened up a slight bit, it hit them, ¨¦chs was thrown out of his own innate ability, feeling like someone had just struck him with a sledgehammer straight in the face.


    His heart beating wildly, lungs expanding painfully against his ribcage, the fear of death deeply engraved into his very soul without knowing why.


    Trying to reestablish sight on his scouts, he was met with failure, something was preventing even that.


    "What is happening ¨¦chs?!" Abraham shook him out of his stupor.


    It took him a second to find words.


    "Something¡­ Something is down there¡­"


    Something horrifying.


    The five scouts were forced to their knees, emptying the content of their bowels, throat clenched, eyes wide open, muscles tense.


    Meanwhile, Loimos basked in the glorious presence emanating from a lone stone coffin, resting in the center of a great circr room, barren of any furniture or decorations, only abstract carvings to the glory of this one beingid out on every surface.


    This right here, this was it.


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